Harry Potter and the Voice of the Obscurial
by anonwriter64
Summary: Harry arrives at Hogwarts and is proven to be a capable and intelligent young wizard, but what will happen as things get worse at the Dursleys? Will Vernon fulfill the promise he made to Harry on his 11th birthday? Slytherin!Harry Powerful!Harry Draco/Harry Drarry Abused!Harry. This story is also posted on Wattpad with the same name (same author)
1. Prologue

On the day of Harry's eleventh birthday, his uncle hit him harder than he ever had before.

Vernon Dursley decided to do this when Harry had decided to take the liberty to open a letter addressed to himself. _How dare he?_ Vernon thought angrily as he glared down at the unconscious boy on the floor. _That scum-sucking son of a whore is about as unappreciative as it gets._

He delivered one final kick to the young boy's gut before throwing him over his shoulder, walking to his cupboard and throwing him in. He didn't wait to see how he landed and turned to the kitchen, finding a letter on the floor.

The letter had a worn parchment envelope that felt aged and was slightly yellowing. The letter was sealed with a wax symbol, and above it on the envelope was a crest divided into four sections, a different animal per section. Along the bottom of the crest were the words, ' _Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus'_. Vernon scowled as he noticed the name written above the crest; Hogwarts.

He stormed over to his wife and shoved the letter into her face. "Pet! Is this that school for freaks you were talking about!"

Petunia Dursley's eyes widened so much that they looked like they could fall right out of her head. She grabbed the letter and flipped it over, looking at who it was addressed to:

Mr. H Potter

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging, Surrey

She opened her mouth as if to scream, but no words came out. She nodded quickly at her husband, not wanting to test him as she had seen the display of anger against Harry a mere minute earlier. "This- this is the school. What do we do?"

Vernon snatched back the letter and stormed over to the fireplace, throwing it in immediately and grinning as he watched the envelope burn. "We can't let him go. If they make us, we'll just make sure to fulfill our promise from so many years ago, whether it be this summer or the next or the one after that. We will stomp out his magic once and for all."

That moment was when Vernon Dursley began planning how he would make every summer worse and worse for Harry James Potter.

Don't worry, most chapter won't be this short in the future, this is just a little intro. Thanks so much for reading!

Word count: 385

Published on: January 29th 2018


	2. 1 - Hogwarts

Harry Potter may have seemed normal, if not a little shy, as he walked towards the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. On the inside, he was shaking like a leaf but he knew better than to show it on the outside.

Harry had never been more terrified in his life. He didn't know much about anything having to do with Hogwarts, but it had made his uncle treat him worse tenfold.

Before he received his Hogwarts letter, Harry would cook and clean for them all the time, only getting a very small portion of the meal, if he was lucky. He would only ever get a beating if he made a mistake or if he didn't finish his chores.

After he received his Hogwarts letter, beatings had occurred almost daily but they made sure to not touch his face, as he would be off to Hogwarts soon and they couldn't have anyone seeing his bruises. His uncle had told him that he better enjoy having magic while he had it because he wouldn't have it for long and he would be returning to the Dursleys again permanently soon.

He wasn't sure what his uncle was planning on doing, but Harry suspected it wasn't anything good. He hoped his uncle was wrong because magic seemed so amazing and Harry didn't ever want to leave it.

Harry had sat on the train with a ginger boy named Ron Weasley. He wasn't sure what he thought of Ron quite yet, as he seemed a bit energetic for Harry's likings but he hoped they remained friends.

Hogwarts was absolutely breathtaking and Harry loved it the moment he saw it. His desire to never leave this place was only increased as they walked through the corridors towards the Great Hall. The paintings were moving all around them and everything was so filled with color and life, it was very different from the Dursleys and Harry loved it.

The group stopped before a flight of stairs and was told to wait until a professor arrived. Immediately, people began speaking amongst each other, and Harry couldn't help but notice that many of the whispers were about himself.

A stern-looking woman with a Scottish accent walked towards the group and looked over all of them before giving them a small speech on the houses. It really bothered Harry that she didn't mention what each house represents but when Ron leaned over and whispered to Harry about how everybody in Slytherin was evil, the rebellious side of Harry acted up and a small voice in the back of his head told him to try and get into Slytherin.

Ron was really annoying him at this point so he wasn't answering most of what he said, other than to ask questions about things. Ron couldn't stop rambling about how great Gryffindor was, so Harry decided he was going to let the hat decide everything and let fate take its course, no matter what the rebellious side of him wanted.

All of a sudden, a voice cut through whatever Ron was trying to say. "So it's true then, what they're saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts."

Harry looked over to see a blonde boy with pale white skin looking at him curiously. He was a bit irritated that the boy had announced his presence, but he wasn't going to make any enemies before he got sorted unless this guy was a total prat.

"This is Crabbe," the boy said, gesturing to a rather aggressive looking boy on his left before continuing, "And this is Goyle." He nodded to a taller, but equally scary looking, boy on his right. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron, who was still standing next to Harry, snickered at his name before whispering, "This one's a death eater in training. You shouldn't even be talking to scum like him."

Harry was stunned by Ron's words but his surprise quickly turned to disgust as he took a step away from Ron before turning towards the blonde boy, who was now sneering. He must not have heard what Ron said.

"Think something's funny? Well, you can't exactly talk. Red hair and a hand me down robe? You must be a Weasley." The boy snarled, looking surprisingly venomous for an eleven-year-old boy. Harry was a bit wary of this boy, but he had yet to speak with him while not around Ron so he decided to give him a chance.

Weasley glared back. Before Ron had a chance to retort, Draco turned to Harry. "You'll soon realize that some pureblood families are better than others. Don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

Draco stuck out his hand. Harry looked at him curiously and decided that he would make his answer vague so he wouldn't make it seem like he was fully supporting Draco in front of his whole year.

He reached out and shook his hand, "We'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

Draco smirked, knowing exactly what game Harry was playing. "I guess we will."

During his mini staring contest with Draco, Harry couldn't help but notice that Ron was sputtering right next to him while many others had their jaws hanging open or their eyes wide. They were shocked that Harry Potter, so-called savior of the wizarding world, had just ambiguously agreed to ally with a Death Eater's son.

Ron stepped forward, but before he could do anything, Professor McGonagall stated, "We're ready for you now."

Draco and Harry walked in beside each other, looking around in amazement. Draco was hiding it much better than Harry was, but Harry didn't mind. He wanted to seem as innocent as possible for the time being.

The pair watched as a grubby looking hat began to sing a song about the four houses at Hogwarts and Dumbledore gave a small speech welcoming the first years before McGonagall began the sorting. The first name called was Hermione Granger, a muggle-born that Harry had met on the train ride to Hogwarts. She seemed nice enough but Ron thought she was mental. Not that Harry cared what he thought.

Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor after a few seconds and Harry was quite surprised. He had figured she would be in Ravenclaw for sure, knowing how much she had studied before coming to the school and how she had already learned many spells.

Draco was called up right after Hermione and Harry wished him luck as he went up and was immediately sorted into Slytherin. Harry clapped and smiled for every student who was sorted, even as Ron was sorted into the house that he couldn't stop praising. He didn't even realize he was nervous until his heart skipped a beat when the words, "Harry Potter," came out of Minerva McGonagall's mouth.

He walked up hesitantly and couldn't help but notice that the Great Hall had gone completely silent save for a few whispers of, "Harry Potter? _The_ Harry Potter?"

He sat down on the stool and sighed as Professor McGonagall put the hat on his head. "Ooh, you're a tough one."

Harry gasped and spoke in his mind, _you can read my mind?_

"Of course," the hat spoke aloud, "How else am I supposed to decide what house to put you in?" Harry sat in stunned silence as the hat muttered.

"Definitely not Hufflepuff, it would be a waste of talent. Not that Hufflepuff isn't great and wouldn't fit you, but you have the potential for so much more than a leader that leads with words. You have an amazing magical core, probably one of the strongest I've ever seen! If you train hard enough, I'm sure you could be more powerful than Dumbledore one day, maybe even Voldemort. Just a tip, you should probably begin to practice wandless and nonverbal magic as soon as possible before you become too reliant on your wand." The hat gave out advice, speaking very low so only McGonagall could hear it.

Minerva was stunned as she heard the hat dole out advice to learn wandless magic. Minerva herself was only able to do a spell or two with wandless magic, and it was very difficult and draining. And hearing that the boy could be as powerful as Voldemort gave her hope that this boy, this small underfed but strangely confident boy, would be the one to save them all.

The rest of the hall was watching on in confusion. The hat hadn't taken so long to sort anyone in a while and they were very nervously anticipating where the Boy-Who-Lived would be placed.

"And not Ravenclaw, though you could certainly fit in. You definitely have the competence to be in Ravenclaw but with your prowess, you need to be in Gryffindor or Slytherin. Though, I have a feeling that Slytherin would lead you on the path to greatness. There's no doubt about that! Which would you prefer, after all? Both of your parents were in Gryffindor." The Sorting Hat spoke the last part softly.

Harry sighed before speaking again; "It's your decision. Put me on the path that I'm destined to be on."

The Sorting Hat breathed out, despite having no abdomen or lungs. "Well, goodbye Harry Potter. It was nice meeting you and please heed my advice to learn wandless magic as soon as possible. Also, do not trust Dumbledore or Voldemort, you are safe from no one except for those you deem trustworthy. Live up to my expectations, Harry. Surpass them, even. SLYTHERIN!"

Harry walked back towards the Slytherin common room for the first time, among people he hoped would be his friends for the year. This group included Draco Malfoy, obviously, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini.

Pansy Parkinson was a pureblood, as expected, who was, as expected, quite prejudiced towards Muggle-borns and was, as expected, wary of becoming friends with Harry. She soon excepted him however because Draco seemed to have an interest in him.

Blaise Zabini was a pureblood as well and Harry was not surprised to find that Blaise seemed to be the vainest of all of them and very against muggleborns. Harry wasn't surprised because he appeared to have the most aristocratic features of all the other Slytherins and had this air about him that screamed, I AM BETTER THAN YOU!

Draco, of course, Harry already knew. Harry was completely sure that he would be trusting Draco very soon. He wasn't exactly sure of why, but something about Draco intrigued him and brought feelings up from inside of Harry that were unfamiliar.

In Harry's first charms class, where they had practiced an unlocking and locking spell, Harry had mastered it immediately on his first try. He was the only one to master it, being able to do it every time perfectly, but Hermione Granger had managed the locking charm once but wasn't able to unlock it.

Flitwick had beamed, knowing that Harry had picked up his mother's affinity for charms. He was delighted and knew this child held a lot of potential for the future. He silently promised that he would nurture this talent and make it as good as it could be.

Draco had been congratulatory on the outside, but he was secretly jealous that Harry had completed it while he, a pureblood, wasn't. He swore to himself that he would prove to Harry that he was worthy of his friendship by the end of the year.

Hermione Granger had felt nothing but jealousy and she didn't hide it well. She had wanted to impress everyone when she came to Hogwarts but it appeared that Harry Potter would outshine her. She made an unspoken pact with herself to outshine Harry Potter by the end of the year.

In Harry's first transfiguration class, he had mastered turning a matchstick into a needle. It went as well as Harry's first charms class had gone, maybe even better. He had mastered in immediately, much to the surprise of Professor McGonagall.

Minerva had heard almost everything the Sorting Hat had said to Harry while being sorted, and she still was having trouble comprehending the words of the hat. She thought, ' _It surely must be exaggerating, this small child had the potential to be more powerful than Dumbledore?Blasphemy!_ '

The transfiguration professor had so much trouble believing it, that when the child mastered his first assignment faster than any first year she had ever seen, she felt the need to test him.

"Mr. Potter, very nice job. Ten points to Slytherin." She said as she gave him a nod of approval. He smiled shyly and nodded his thanks for the compliment. "How about," She started, "You turn this mouse into a snuff box."

She summoned a mouse and put it in front of the student. The child furrowed his eyebrows, being put on the spot was not something he was used to. "The incantation is _Musad Archa_."

Harry nodded, straightening his back and pointing his wand at the small animal. He concentrated on turning the mouse to a snuff box as he said, " _Musad Archa!_ "

Much to the shock of the professor who had been teaching for nearly 30 years, the mouse promptly turned into a very detailed and ornate snuff box. She was surprised, mainly because this was a spell used for the first year exams, and he would have received an O and it was his very first class.

Her eyes narrowed, wanting to know the extent of this child's potential. She conjured a button and promptly said, "Turn this button into a beetle, the incantation is _Egosum Magnus_."

Harry was extremely nervous, not quite knowing what his teacher was doing as he did as he had done before, imagining the button turning into a beetle. " _Egosum Magnus!_ "

McGonagall was stunned when yet again, the spell worked properly and did its job and turned into a perfect six-legged beetle.

This continued for quite some time, with Harry successfully turning a bird into a goblet, a teapot to a tortoise, a Guinea Fowl into a Guinea Pig and finally, an owl to an opera glass.

Harry seemed quite tired by the end of this and McGonagall only felt a twinge of sympathy for putting her student through this because she was too overwhelmed with the other emotions she was feeling. Her first-year student had just completed an OWL level spell, and he had done it perfectly! He exceeded most of her fifth-year students and it was his very first transfiguration lesson.

Even McGonagall knew she wasn't that good of a teacher.

The whole entire was stunned as they watched this silent war in between Harry Potter and their transfiguration professor. Harry had done every single thing that their teacher had asked them to do, and they weren't even able to turn a matchstick into a needle. They all felt their egos go down several notches as they were in total awe of Harry Potter.

"Excellent job, Mr. Potter. Twenty points to Slytherin. You needn't do anything for the rest of class, but I would like to have a word with you afterward if you don't mind." McGonagall said, before continuing to the rest of the class. "The rest of you, stop gawking and work on your match."

Harry sighed and slumped back in his chair as the rest of the class snapped out of their stunned silence and began working on their own.

Draco tried as hard as he could, but could only manage to make the edges of the match just a little bit sharper. He was in the middle of his sixth attempt when Harry's voice came from his side; "Try imagining the transformation in your head while you say the incantation."

Draco turned to see Harry, looking quite exhausted, glancing in between Draco and his match. The Malfoy heir nodded and took a deep breath, focusing on the transformation before continuing with, " _Paracus Lignum!_ "

Half of the class was stunned and the other half scowled as they heard Draco exclaiming, "I did it!"

Minerva eyed Harry curiously as she walked up to the boy's table and looking down at what was supposed to be a needle in curiosity, before picking it up. "Five points, Mr. Malfoy. But take notice that the points are not quite sharp enough. I recommend you continue practicing."

At this, Draco's excitement turned into focus as he took another match out of the box. The rest of the class had heard that Harry was the one to help Draco to success, so several of them asked Harry to help them as well.

Harry gracefully accepted and everyone who asked for help had made major improvement by the end of the class. The only students who hadn't ended up being helped were Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley.

Hermione and Ron were scowling in frustration. Ron hadn't managed to do anything to his match but was stubborn and jealous of how much attention Harry was getting over his supposed skill in Transfiguration. Something deep inside of him was begging him to ask for advice, but he couldn't bring himself to sink that low as to ask from a _Slytherin_ who had rejected him. Needless to say, Ron was regretting being so rude about Malfoy. He wished he had kept his thoughts to himself and then he would be the second person in the class to succeed and Malfoy would be the sulking one in the corner.

Hermione was fuming because she had failed once again to be better than Harry Potter. While she had managed to put the match into the right shape, she had failed to change the material and color so it just looked like a toothpick with a red tip. She had gotten points at the beginning of the class, but that didn't matter. She wanted to prove that even muggleborns could surpass half-bloods and purebloods.

After the class, Harry stayed behind as Professor McGonagall had wished. He walked up to her in her desk as she was filling out what each student had done in the class. "Professor? You asked for me to stay?"

McGonagall looked up, startled and having completely forgotten. She was very distracted by the fact that a first-year class had accomplished so much in their first class, much less that one of them had been able to complete transfigurations that even fifth years couldn't complete. She also had not failed to notice that the class' collective success had only been because of Harry's advice and teaching.

"Oh yes, Mr. Potter, my apologies. I seemed to have gotten a bit distracted by my paperwork." McGonagall amended, nodding as she looked up at the especially small first-year boy from her seat. Harry nodded his understanding and McGonagall continued with, "Now, I'm sure you practiced over the summer, didn't you Mr. Potter?"

Harry took notice that the Professor's Scottish accent was slowly leaking through into her speech patterns as she was increasingly distressed. He furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head; "No, not really. I mostly just did my best to read through some of my textbooks, I wasn't allowed to do much more than that."

Minerva cocked her head to the right. "Surely you must have practiced a wee bit, Mr. Potter. It's practically unheard of for a first year to be able to do many of the transfigurations that you completed today. And what do you mean 'allowed'?"

"My Aunt and Uncle didn't want me doing magic until school came, Professor. I wasn't allowed to have my wand so I snuck a few of my textbooks with me to my cup- sorry, I mean my bedroom and read them while they were asleep." Harry explained, hoping the teacher would leave the topic alone.

McGonagall nodded, however hesitantly, at that. She wasn't very surprised that Petunia wouldn't allow him to do magic, but to not even allow him his wand or textbooks? It seemed quite odd to her, but she let the topic rest. "Anywho," She narrowed her eyes as Harry visibly relaxed at the change of topic, "I would like to discuss the topic with Albus before making any official decisions, but I was wondering if you would take an interest in attending upper year classes."

Harry gasped and he knew what his answer was instantly. "I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't want to appear as if-"

"I know exactly what you mean, you needn't explain. But I must offer that you study beyond your year, perhaps you can meet with me for lessons on an arranged time, would that be better?" McGonagall interrupted

Harry nodded immediately, he wanted to b as good as he could get in magic after all. But one thing was itching on his mind so he voiced his concern; "But, Professor, what should I do in our normal classes then?"

McGonagall gave a small smile before answering, "Mr. Potter, if I do recall correctly, the Sorting Hat recommended you should begin practicing wandless magic as soon as possible, correct?" She waited for Harry's hesitant nod before continuing with, "Have you started with that yet?"

Harry sighed, "I don't really know where to begin, so no, I haven't. Professor, I was wondering if you were planning on telling anyone about my conversation with the Sorting Hat."

She nodded her understanding. "I believe I can get you some textbooks to help with the basics. I will only tell someone if you are fine with it, although I was planning on telling Dumbledore. I believe he could help to train you and all of the professors could help you on your way to greatness, which the hat said you were destined for."

"I'm fine with you telling Professor Dumbledore, I just don't want the whole school to know about it. Thank you, Professor." Harry said, hoping the conversation wouldn't lead him to be late for his next class.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter, for bringing me one of the most interesting classes of my career. You may go to your next class now and if you're late give them this and tell them you were talking with me." McGonagall dismissed him, handing him a small piece of paper.

Harry smiled, said his goodbyes, and walked towards his next class; Potions.

Harry managed to make it into the potions classroom, breathing heavily, right before Professor Snape swept in, robes billowing after him. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," The pale man began dramatically.

Professor Snape had long, oily hair that jumped around his face as he moved and black eyes that held a coldness that Harry definitely did not want to test. His voice was barely above a whisper and yet the class was hanging on to every word. This man intrigued Harry and he definitely wanted to learn more about him. He seemed to be the type who wouldn't cut anybody any slack, under any circumstances.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses..." His voice was slow, yet encapsulating and it made Harry want to learn more. This man had definitely given this speech several times.

"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death—if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach," He finished with finesse but didn't wait to give anyone time to breath before snapping out, "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry's eyes widened and he flinched slightly, not expecting the sudden attention of the class to be directed at him. He suddenly felt his studies from the summer coming to fruition as he answered, "The Draught of Living Death, Sir."

Snape's right eyebrow shot up. He could have sworn that he saw a look of surprise go across his normally emotionless face but he wasn't sure. "It seems you've done your studies, Mr. Potter. Now tell me, where would you look if you were to find a bezoar?"

Harry answered confidently yet again, but he knew for a fact that this was above first-year and Snape probably shouldn't be asking this to a first-year, let alone his first class. "The stomach of a goat, sir."

The professor gave what could have been taken as a smirk, but Harry seemed to think was a half-smile. "Good, five points to Slytherin for actually opening a book during your summer holidays. Now, let's see if anyone else has as well."

Snape turned to the side of the room that was mostly populated with Gryffindors and completely ignored Hermione Granger's hand. "Ah, how about you, Weasley. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Weasley's face went as red as his hair the moment Snape said his name and he stuttered out, "I'm - I'm not sure, Professor."

"One point from Gryffindor, Weasley. Do you think you are above the rest of the class who actually decided to prepare for the school year?" He snapped at the ginger, who instantly began stammering out his, 'no sir'.

A venomous sneer appeared on his face as he turned to his godson, Draco, once he had finished snickering at the embarrassed redhead. "Mr. Malfoy, is there any chance you know the answer to my question?"

Draco smirked, "It's a trick question, is it not, Professor? Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same things."

The smirk reappeared and Draco's smirk became a prideful smile; he knew he had gotten the answer right. "Correct, Mr. Malfoy. Take a point for Slytherin, and another insight you could have added is that another name for wolfsbane and monkshood is aconite."

The rest of the class passed quickly without a hitch. Most of the time had been spent by the Slytherins, save Harry, snickering at the Gryffindors as they proved time and time again that they were incompetent. Harry and Draco had been one of the few pairs in the class to do the potion perfectly and Draco had no problem boasting about it on his way back to the Common Room.

"Hey, Blaise," Draco said, greeting the pureblood as they exited the classroom. Blaise pursed his lips into a thin line and looked over at Draco indulgently, "Hey, Draco. What did you think of potions?"

Draco smiled smugly, "I loved it, seeing Weasley's face turn as red as his hair brings happiness to my soul. It also helped that Harry and I completed the potion perfectly."

Blaise smirked, "Yeah, so did Theo and I. I think it was just us who did it perfectly, right?"

"Us and that filthy little mudblood Granger. People like her shouldn't be allowed to go to this school, no matter how smart they are." Draco drawled in disgust.

Harry was totally taken aback as Draco's words of hatred towards the girl who had done nothing to him. "What do you mean?"

"She's a muggleborn." Draco looked at Harry weirdly as if that made his answer completely obvious.

"Why does that mean she shouldn't go here?"

Draco looked confused for a moment, as if he didn't even know the answer himself, before regaining his poised stance and answering confidently. "They're just not the same. They've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts before they get their letter. I think they should just keep it in the pureblood families."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. Did Draco not realize who he was talking to? Harry had never heard of Hogwarts before getting his letter and he wasn't pureblood either. He was offended but confused as to why he holds those beliefs. "But, Draco, _I'd_ never heard of Hogwarts before getting my letter and _I'm_ not pureblood. Do you think I shouldn't be here?"

His mouth opened and closed slowly, totally at a loss for words. He hadn't even thought of that and now Harry was twisting his words against him and he had no idea how Harry had been raised. "No, no. I should have worded that better. Halfbloods are fine too, just not muggleborns."

"You know my mother was a muggleborn, right?" Harry was becoming more and more offended as this conversation passed.

Blaise was just watching the dispute happen silently. While he belonged to a pureblood family, he had nothing against muggleborns and believed they had every right to go to Hogwarts.

Draco was having trouble keeping up with the conversation as Harry gave valid point after valid point. He had just unknowingly insulted Harry's mother, Harry himself and his upbringing. "No, I guess I didn't know that. I'm sorry."

Harry pursed his lips and looked down at the ground ahead of them as they continued walking in silence. Blaise couldn't take having so many unanswered questions anymore and decided to speak up. "What do you mean you didn't know about Hogwarts before you got your letter?"

This was a topic that Harry did not want to speak about at all. He was very sensitive about his relatives and under no circumstances did he want any of them to know anything about the abuse he got. He didn't want his friends to know how much of a freak he was and how he was beaten more often than a professional boxer who lost every match. He was extremely conflicted about whether or not he deserved the abuse. It had been drilled into his mind that he was worthless yet some fighting voice in the back of his mind told him he was worth more than he got. He had no idea anymore about what to think.

"I was raised by my mum's muggle sister and her husband. My Aunt knew about magic but she never told me so it was a huge surprise when I got my letter." He explained quietly. He had an urge to chuckle bitterly at the end but decided against it. 'It was a huge surprise' entailed that his Uncle punching his lights out immediately after receiving it.

"Why were you raised by them and not your godparents or someone else?" Draco asked shyly. He felt very bad about insulting Harry's heritage, especially when he had been such a good friend to him so far.

"I'm not sure if I even have godparents, and I've no idea why I was raised by them and not someone else," Harry answered. The question rose many questions in his mind; Did he have godparents? Why was he sent to the Dursleys? Surely someone must have known that Petunia hates magic?

The boys arrived in the common room and all immediately headed off to the dorm that they shared.

Their room was very long, but not very wide. The walls were covered in a deep green color and silver trimming along with Slytherin crests in between the patterns of silver. They had four beds, lined up against the wall side-by-side, with green silk hangings for privacy around the beds. They all had desks across from their beds as well as wardrobes for their belongings. There was a bathroom door right before the door that led to the common room. that The three boys shared their room with another boy named Theodore Nott.

Theodore (who preferred to go by Theo) Nott was a tall and very lanky boy with shaggy brown hair that went a little past his eyes along with hazel eyes. He tended to be a bit of a loner and kept to himself, but he seemed nice enough whenever Harry spoke to him.

Harry instantly jumped on his bed and let out a deep breath. His bed was the farthest from the door to the common room and he also had the least amount of belongings by a long shot, not that the other boys noticed. Draco had looked at Harry's wardrobe while the boys were unpacking and gave a curious look but no questions were asked.

Harry was worn out from such a trivial day and wondered how he was ever going to finish this year without breaking out into a panic attack. He was extremely nervous all day and resisted (and failed some of the times) the urge to flinch every time someone raised their hand. He also found trouble in the hallways with large masses of people.

Draco and Blaise had both helped him whenever they noticed him getting nervous, but they didn't want to ask the reason why Harry was so anxious around everyone.

After a minute of considering the day, Harry walked over to his desk and decided to look through textbooks and make a list of spells he wanted to master by the end of the year.

The other two boys had started a conversation about Quidditch and how excited they were to have their flying lessons in two days. After a few minutes, they asked Harry if he wanted to go down to the Great Hall with them. Harry accepted immediately, though he wasn't very hungry. He had gotten used to not eating for days at a time and his appetite was very small most of the time.

Draco didn't know what to think about Harry. He was very nice and clearly very talented when it came to magic, but he seemed to have two, very different sides to his personality. Harry had acted completely different the night before at the Sorting than he had today. He acted with the poise of a pureblood when talking to Draco yesterday and had clearly shown disdain towards Weasley, which Draco could relate to. But today, while Harry had shown an amazing proficiency in all of their classes, he seemed quieter and shyer. Draco wondered if Harry was just having an off day today or if this was his personality. Either way, he definitely liked the small boy and hoped they would remain friends.

Blaise had taken more of an immediate liking to Harry than Draco had. Blaise was open and friendly with him instantly while Draco held up his pureblood persona until after they had gotten to the dorms that night. He knew, especially after today, that Harry would be a very important friend to have in the future. Plus, he was pretty cute...

They walked down to the Great Hall together and Harry seemed to notice that almost everyone they passed had looked at him. He wished he could think that it was just people being people, but he couldn't help but think that they knew what was wrong with him; how much of a freak he was.

The trio entered the Great Hall and walked up to the Slytherin table. Draco and Harry sat next to each other while Blaise slid into a seat next to a girl who vaguely reminded Harry of a pug. This somehow didn't make the girl unattractive though, as she had a pretty face. She had curly black hair that went down to her shoulders and a slim figure along with a wide face and nose. She had slightly tan skin and dark eyes that could almost appear black.

"Hey Pans," Draco greeted her. Harry noticed that Draco knew almost everyone in the Slytherin house before even coming to Hogwarts and if he didn't already know them, they definitely knew him.

"Hey, Draco, how was your summer?" She asked politely as if they were old friends. Suddenly her eyes turned towards Harry and they widened drastically. Before Draco could respond to her question, the girl was grinning at Harry. "How impolite of me, I'm Pansy Parkinson! And you must be Harry Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you. You did absolutely amazing in Transfiguration today, you must have practiced _loads_ over the summer!"

Harry gave her a small smile and blushed shyly at the compliment. "Nice to meet you too. And thanks, but it really was nothing. I'm sure you guys could do that stuff way more easily then I did."

Pansy raised an eyebrow as she listened to Harry brush off her compliment. She noticed how Draco sighed and Blaise smirked at his words. "I don't believe that for a second," she started her tirade to prove to Harry that the feats he had accomplished were amazing for a first-year. "I remember at a family dinner, my cousin was talking about how he had so much trouble on his OWL exam when he had to transform an owl into an opera glass. That means you did a fifth-year spell on your first try!"

Harry's eyes widened as he noticed that several people had turned to look over at the subject of Pansy's rant. He blushed for the second time and looked away. When he looked up he saw only one person looking at him; a tall and muscular looking boy with large front teeth and shifty looking eyes. He had black hair that came to a gelled point in the front. He was glaring at Harry angrily, but once their eyes met, he looked away.

Draco noticed the glare and leaned over to whisper something in Harry's ear. "That's Marcus Flint, captain of the Quidditch team. He's a sixth year and rumor has it he got a D (dreadful) on his OWL for Transfiguration. He probably couldn't do that one as well."

Draco's words did very little to reassure Harry as he realized that Marcus Flint probably hated him now because of Pansy's rant.

Pansy couldn't help but notice how cute Harry was. He had fairly short, raven black hair that always seemed to be messy, not that she minded, in fact, one might say it only added to his attractiveness. He was small and had a very petite figure. His looked as if he was a porcelain doll, very easy to break. He had pale skin, plump lips that always seemed to form an attractive pout, a sharp nose, high cheekbones (which was very rare for an eleven-year-old) and the most enchanting eyes Pansy had ever seen. They were a bright green color that Pansy had never seen before on a person and it made her want to swoon. Though she didn't really think he was her type, maybe in a few years when he was taller, she would see. She wasn't a fan of having a boy who was smaller than her, but she couldn't deny that he was one of the cutest of their year.

Pansy quickly apologized and was forgiven, as their casual conversation ensued.

Everyone flooded into the Great Hall over the course of the next few minutes, not wanting to arrive late to dinner. When the majority of the school had entered and sat down, Dumbledore stood up and began to make an announcement before the feast began. "I would like to remind everybody of the fact that tomorrow is our medical assessment for all of our students. All students will be informed of when their examination will be by their head of house or a prefect either tonight or tomorrow morning. To clarify, all examinations will be extremely confidential and nobody will have access to your files except for Madam Pomfrey, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall and I. If your parents would like to see the files, they can send a letter to the school with a request for the files. If one of your peers is not present at the moment, please inform them of the information I have given to you today. Thank you and I hope that you will all enjoy the feast."

The headmaster sat back down in his seat as conversations immediately resumed. Nobody seemed to give much thought to the announcement except for one small first-year from Slytherin.

Harry's eyes widened as he realized, _I can't hide my secret anymore_. His breathing began to quicken and right before he lost control of everything he said to his friends, "I'll be right back," and walked (more like sprinted but ok) out of the Great Hall.

The majority of the Slytherins noticed the first-year running away but declined to comment. They figured that he had just gotten sick and needed the loo.

His friends, on the other hand, had noticed his heavy breathing. Draco and Pansy were totally oblivious to what was happening but Blaise looked worried as if he knew something the others didn't. Draco questioned, "What just happened? Should we go check on him?"

Blaise sighed and said, "I'll go check on him, I have experience with this kind of thing."

Meanwhile, Harry had run out of the Great Hall, desperate to get away. He didn't know quite where he was going but he knew he wouldn't be able to run much longer. Finally, he collapsed in a hallway, his breathing was shallow and his heart pounding, as he slid his back against a wall.

As Harry tried to reign in his thoughts, he found himself unable to control anything around him as tears began to flow from his eyes. He held his face in his hands as he swayed back and forth, his thoughts chanting in his mind, they're going to find out, they're going to find out.

He was the most terrified he had ever been, and that was saying something. If anybody found out about the Dursleys, they would hurt him worse than he ever had. They might even kill him. Harry couldn't resist though, he couldn't keep the secret so he did deserve whatever punishment he got. I'm worthless, an abnormal freak who can't do anything without the Dursleys. Their words ran through his head repeatedly, he was unable to contain them.

He began shaking uncontrollably as if he were freezing. He was succumbing to his thoughts.

Blaise ran out into the hallway in front of the Great Hall, trying to listen to anything. He knew exactly what was happening, as he had seen it happen many times before with his mother. He remembered the first time he came across her in the bathroom, he had no idea what to do, but now he was basically a professional at pulling people out of their panicked state.

He ran to the left, knowing that Harry didn't know his way around very well but he would probably head in the direction of the common room and listened again. He heard heavy breathing and ran in the direction of the noise.

He turned another corner and saw Harry, slumped against the wall with his knees up close to him and his head in his hands. He was shaking and clearly struggling.

Blaise walked up to the raven-haired boy and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, sitting down next to him. He was shocked as Harry flinched away and looked at Blaise with a look of fear on his face as if he thought he was going to strike him. Blaise attempted to soothe him, "Harry, it's ok, you're safe here. Nothing's going to happen."

Harry instantly put his head back in his hands and swayed back and forth. "This isn't happening," Harry murmured, "This isn't happening, this isn't happening."

Blaise was very sad to see Harry so vulnerable like this and knew it would take a lot to calm the young Slytherin. "Deep breathes, Harry. In and out," He sighed in relief as Harry struggled to breath as Blaise was telling him. "Yeah, just like that. Now keep on doing that, in and out."

Harry was desperately trying to focus on Blaise's voice and only his voice. He tried to drown out the rest of his thoughts. All that mattered to him was breathing and... and...

Suddenly, all of the progress they had made disappeared as Harry's breathing began to go way more out of control than it had before. He choked out, "No! I- I can't!"

Harry's mind was convinced that he was back at the Dursley's house, his uncle looming over him venomously with his wife and son snickering at him from the corner. Vernon sneered at Harry as the boy shook like a leaf, "You told those people our secret, didn't you? Well, you know what the punishment for telling the secret is, you abnormal freak! You're lucky we even took you in!"

Vernon smirked at Harry as he slowly removed his belt, looking at his nephew with an incredible amount of disdain and hatred. He was about to swing his belt at Harry when a loud, yet soothing voice, entered his thoughts. "Harry! Keep on breathing!"

The image around him disappeared as he looked at Blaise, who was sitting beside him. He was still breathing quickly, but he knew he was not about to get another thrashing from his Uncle. He was fine. _For now,_ a little voice in the back of his head said. _Soon enough, you'll be back there and in more pain than ever. They'll hate you even more now that you've revealed their secrets. They'll kill you._

Harry quelled the voice in his head as he put forth his best efforts to focus on Blaise. Though he couldn't control himself and his state devolved from panic into desperate sobs.

Blaise began to rub soothing circles on his friends back as he sobbed relentlessly. He had done this many times before with his mother and he could only pray that he would never be mocked for this. Something in the back of his head scolded him for not taking the situation completely seriously but he ignored it and focused on the matter at hand. His new friend had just had a very severe panic attack, for Merlin knows what reason, in the middle of a completely normal dinner. He wanted to know what had set his friend off so bad.

Soon enough, Harry stopped crying and let out a deep breath. "Thank you, Blaise."

Blaise was happy to be done with this but was happy to help his friend. "It's fine. Don't mention it. If you ever need to talk about anything, Harry, I'm here. And so is Draco and Pansy, and Professor Snape is always an option too. We all care for you."

The boy's sat in silence for a few moments, only broken by Harry's occasional sniffing. "I think I'm ready to go back in. Do I look normal?"

Blaise looked over at his friend, who had previously had a completely tear-streaked face. Now, other than some minor redness, he looked normal. Blaise nodded.

Harry took a deep breath and stood up, offering a hand to help Blaise up as well. Blaise grinned up at him and accepted the hand. They walked together into the Great Hall as if nothing had happened as Harry silently made a plan for the next day in his mind.

And there's the first chapter! Thanks so much for reading, and please leave feedback so I know! Also suggestions for a different title would be useful because I really don't like the one it has now.

Word count: 7854

Published on: February 10th, 2018


	3. 2 - First Discovery

The next morning, Harry woke up. He was very nervous for the day ahead of him and was putting in his best effort not to have a repeat of the night before.

After last night with Blaise, Harry was nervous about how quickly his secret was going to be revealed. His uncle's words still rang through his mind and he wanted to make sure as few people as possible found out.

Last night, the first year Slytherins had been told to meet in the common room at 7:30 so they could be told when their assessment would be.

The group of four sat together at a small table in the corner. Blaise and Draco were arguing about Quidditch, Harry was watching warily and Pansy was watching Harry with concern.

Pansy couldn't help but notice how Harry was very nervous whenever his friends argued, even if it was about something small. She noticed how flinched every time he raised a hand and let out sighs of relief when said person put their hand back down. She was curious as to why he liked it, but he was Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, she was sure he was just shy.

Draco noticed Harry getting nervous as him and Blaise arguing about whether Puddlemere United or Bulgaria was going to win the cup this year. He shot him a curious look and Blaise looked over to see what Draco was looking at. Blaise looked saddened at Harry's nervousness but sat down without mentioning it.

An awkward silence came quickly and right when Harry opened his mouth to apologize (he didn't really know what he had done wrong if he had to be honest), Snape walked in.

"Hello, students," Snape drawled, looking around at the ten students in front of him. This year had a particularly small amount of students, which made sense due to the timing of the war. His eyes trailed along the students until they finally got to the one he had dreaded meeting up until two days prior; Harry Potter.

He had expected Potter to be an exact replica of his father, but when he first saw the boy, he noticed that he shared many features with his mother. He had her aristocratic cheekbones and pale skin as well as the same wide eyes. They were the same color as well, a beautiful bright green. He had her lips and oddly enough her slim figure as well. Somewhere inside of him, he was happy that the boy had James' hair because he felt as if the boy would look too much like Lily and Severus didn't know how well he would have been able to teach him.

"I would just like to inform you that you will be brought to the infirmary in two separate groups. The first group, to be here at 9, is Milicent Bulstrode, Vincent Crabbe, Tracy Davis, Gregory Goyle and Daphne Greengrass. The second group is to be here by 11 o'clock and that will have the remainder of you. Do you have any questions?" Snape gave his speech quickly, not wanting to waste any time.

When no questions were asked, Snape continued, "Now if nobody has any questions, I would like to inform you of what our nurse, Madam Pomfrey, will be performing today. She will do a blood test, to test for any conditions or diseases that you may have as well as a brief physical. These are necessary and mandatory because we would like to prevent any illnesses from spreading throughout the school, as this has occurred in the past. This will be the only treatment that will be mandatory each year, not including injuries and such. Before I leave, if any of you have any final questions, I recommend you speak up now."

Nobody spoke and so Snape turned and walked away, his robes billowing as he exited through the common room door. Immediately after, the group of ten began to chat amongst each other. None of them seemed particularly concerned about the assessments and were, in fact, more interested in the flying lesson that was going to occur afterward.

"And, so we have Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Harry Potter and Blaise Zabini here. Am I correct?" Madam Pomfrey asked the small group of first years, making sure the whole group was present.

Nobody spoke out, so she ran them over what she was going to do, as Professor Snape had done earlier, and took in Draco Malfoy first.

She had him disrobe for him to be weighed and saw that he was slightly underweight but there was nothing to be worried about as children this age normally had very high metabolisms. She recorded his weight and height, cast a quick diagnostic check and took some blood to test for any conditions. It went off perfectly, other than Draco being slightly uncomfortable, and he was allowed to return outside to fetch the next student but was told to wait there in the hallway.

Next was Theodore Nott, and she had quite a harder time with him. He walked in very hesitantly and Poppy could tell that there was more to this boy that he wasn't telling. She tried to be as soothing as possible as she asked him to take his robe off. The boy reluctantly did as he was told and Poppy had honestly been expecting a bit worse seeing the boy's demeanor.

He was clearly abused at home, though not overly severely. He had a few small welts that she applied lotion to and asked questions about what it was like at his home and eventually revealed that it was his father who had done it to him. She nodded and promised herself that she would inform Professor Dumbledore that night when she was reporting any check-ups that were worthwhile. She knew that the boy's father was a former Death Eater and would have expected something like this.

The boy was an average size, clearly not underfed but not at all what one could consider overweight. She noticed during her diagnostic spell that he had a cracked rib that had not healed properly which she fixed quickly. She took his blood and told him he could send in Pansy Parkinson but to wait in the hall with Draco.

Pansy was confident that everything would be fine and she had nothing to worry about but something was itching at the back of her mind; Harry.

Ever since last night, she knew that Harry was nervous and he wasn't exactly great at hiding it. Even Draco had noticed and he was about as observant as a doormat. But she knew that Blaise knew something that Harry was hiding and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

She strode into the infirmary confidently and did immediately as she was told. She was a bit shy about her body but didn't want to seem it so she just went ahead with it. While Madam Pomfrey was weighing her, she stuttered out, "H-Harry."

The school nurse looked up from her clipboard in a look of confusion. Poppy opened her mouth to question the random outburst but was stopped by Pansy giving a quick rant. "I think there's something really wrong with him. Blaise knows it too. Just please, help him."

Pansy looked down in slight embarrassment but the nurse looked at her with warmth. "Ok, I'll do the best I can, Mrs. Parkinson. It is nice to see you showing such compassion for a fellow classmate. Would you like to tell me what's worrying you?"

The young Slytherin pursed her lips and had a sudden interest in her toes. "I- I think something was wrong last night after Professor Dumbledore made the announcement and he ran out into the hallway. Blaise ran after him and they seemed fine when they came back but it was weird. And he gets really nervous whenever people are arguing around him but he might just be shy."

Madam Pomfrey nodded, suspecting it might just be another case of abuse might be involved. She finished up with Pansy and sent her out into the hallway and asked her to retrieve the boy in question.

A moment later, an especially shy-looking boy walked in, looking at the ground.

Madam Pomfrey smiled warmly at the boy and gestured towards the seat in front of her, holding his file in her hand. "Hello, Mr. Potter. I'm Hogwarts' official school nurse, Madam Pomfrey. Today I'll be performing a quick physical and mental assessment as well as taking some blood to test for any illnesses, is that alright?"

The boy nodded, though she noticed how his eyes darted desperately around the room when she said she would be performing a physical. She continued, "To start, we just need to go over some of the information here in your file. You are Harry James Potter, correct?"

The boy nodded again and couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed with how one-sided this conversation was becoming.

"Your guardians are Vernon and Petunia Dursley and you live with them at number 4 Privet Drive in Surrey, is that right?" Madam Pomfrey asked diligently, noticing the boy's nervous reaction to the mention of his uncle. He nodded yet again.

Soon enough, she had the boy removing his robes reluctantly as he was asked to undress down to his underwear.

Madam Pomfrey was mortified at what she was seeing in front of her. The boy was so sickly thin that you could see each of his individual ribs poking out and it was obvious that he was severely underfed. She looked up and down his body and noticed there were multiple scars as well as unhealed bruises, cuts and welts decorating his torso and back. She was disgusted.

Harry remained silent, his inner self in complete and utter turmoil as he stood, fidgeting, in front of the school's nurse. He planned to make sure the oath of confidentiality was not broken under any circumstances.

"Who- what- oh, dear." The healer started, finding herself at a complete loss for words. She had experienced countless abuse cases among the students at Hogwarts, as it was a trend among many pureblood families and many muggle parents went berserk as they found out their child wasn't quite normal, but none had been nearly as terrible as this.

She could tell that he had been on the receiving side of a belt as well as just being plain beaten. Just from looking at his abdomen, she could see that at least one of his ribs had been broken and not healed properly as it was a little crooked.

The small boy in front of her was nearly trembling as he stared at his feet. He had left the nurse speechless and he could hear the words of his aunt uncle returning to his mind quietly. _'You freak'_ , _'You're a disgusting little whore'_ and, _'Nobody will ever love you'_ were among many phrases swimming through his mind that had been spoken to him in the past.

"Oh, Harry," The nurse's soothing voice broke the silence. "I know this must be hard, but you need to tell me who did this to you. We can make sure you never go back to them again."

Harry grimaced, not knowing what to say. His eyes slowly moved upwards to make contact with hers. "It- it was my uncle but it's fine," He spoke, barely above a whisper.

Madam Pomfrey felt as though her heart was going to break as she heard how broken this boy was. _How could Dumbledore send this boy to those retched muggles,_ she asked herself in her mind.

"Harry, it's not fine. Under no circumstances is what he has done to you alright." She told him as confidently as possible, trying not to let her voice crack as she spoke.

He whispered, "But I deserved it."

She gasped, rushing to comfort him that nothing that had happened was his fault and that he didn't deserve it at all but the boy could not be convinced that he was anything more than worthless.

The rest of the check-up passed quickly, as Poppy was attempting to rush through the rest without crying.

The diagnostic spell brought even worse revelations than the physical did. The boy had multiple broken bones that had not healed correctly as well as many mental issues, though not as severe as the physical, they were still alarming. He seemed to have an anxiety disorder and minor depression.

She drew blood and sent him to the hallway to retrieve one of his classmates for her to check next. She wanted to tell Albus as soon as possible and have him taken away from his relatives permanently.

Well there's the third chapter, hope you all enjoy it! This was only 2000 words, way smaller than the last, but longer chapters will be coming soon!

Please leave feedback, and answer me this; Should Harry be on the Quidditch team?

Thanks for reading!

Word count: 2215


	4. 3 - Confrontation

Harry wandered off to his first flying lesson, following Pansy, Draco, and Blaise. He had become much more energetic after his assessment, which made the other three very happy in turn. They hoped Harry's mood would last.

They walked out onto the pitch, seeing Madam Hooch standing in the middle of the field, near the Quidditch pitch, in front of two rows of old and battered broomsticks.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, the quartet of Slytherin's chatted among themselves happily as the class slowly streamed out into the field to join them.

"Good afternoon, class," Madam Hooch's stern voice spoke to the first years. They echoed her words back to her as she continued her introductory lesson, "Welcome to your first flying lesson. Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of their your right hand over the broom and say up."

Immediately, on his first try, Harry's broom shot straight into his hand. Draco and Blaise's worked on the second try and it took Pansy five tries to get it to her hand.

Draco and two others, Crabbe and Goyle, turned and snickered as Ron Weasley's broom shot up and hit him in the face while Neville Longbottom couldn't get his to move and had to bend down and pick it up himself.

"Now, once you've got a hold of your broom, I want you to mount it." The class mounted their brooms simultaneously as she doled out more advice to the class. "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your broom steady, hover for a moment, and then lean forward slightly and touch back down. On my whistle..."

Before she could even blow the whistle, a portly boy from Gryffindor flew upwards before his broom launched backward. It was obvious that the boy was quite terrible at flying as his broom seemed to control all the movements he was making. Eventually, after a few minutes of Neville flying around wildly and Madam Hooch failing miserably to stop him, he fell to the ground on his wrist with a loud _SNAP._

The boy moaned in pain as the teacher ran over, diagnosing a broken wrist, and left to bring him to the infirmary, but not before saying, "Everyone's to keep their feet firmly on the ground while I take to the hospital wing. Understand? If I see a single broom in the air, the one riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say Quidditch."

Harry watched silently as Crabbe, one of Malfoy's lackeys that followed him around but he never spoke to, walked up to a small circular item that Neville had dropped, picking it up.

"Huh, looks like Longbottom's got a remembrall. Maybe if that piece of lard had given this a squeeze he would've remembered to fall on his fat ass."

Harry felt a small flame ignite inside of him as he walked up to Crabbe before standing behind him and declaring, "Give it to me, Crabbe."

Crabbe turned around, stunned as he turned around to see the person who had demanded the object from him was none other than the Boy-Who-Lived. He had seen how Harry had excelled in every one of their classes and had decided previously that he did not want to get on Harry's bad side. But, he also knew that Harry had grown up with muggles, and had no experience with brooms.

"Make me," Crabbe stated. He grabbed his broom and flew up into the sky, finally resting about 20 meters (65 feet) above the ground. "Or am I too far out of your reach, _Potter_."

He sneered angrily at the boy as he quickly grabbed his broom and flew up to meet his height. Crabbe spoke once again, wanting nothing more than to set off the young wizard. "You muggle raised piece of shit, protecting your little Gryffindors as if you are one! You should be grovelling on the ground apologizing to us purebloods for making us stand your presence!"

Harry seethed angrily. He hated being insulted, but he hated being told his position even more. He could hear his three friends from up where he was flying, Pansy speaking about how reckless he was being and Draco and Blaise asking where he learned to fly. He discarded the thoughts from his mind, instead of turning them to the situation at hand. "Just give me the remembrall, Crabbe."

Crabbe smirked as he pulled back his right arm and launched the remembrall towards the castle, saying, "Go fetch you mud-blooded freak!"

Harry didn't spare a second thought before taking off after the remembrall.

Draco watched in amazement as Harry flew through the air towards the object, flying as if he'd been doing it for years. He observed with awe, ignoring Pansy's scream of disbelief and worry from behind him. He couldn't help but admire the boy in front of him. He was so shy, yet so strong and Draco wanted nothing more than to help him get stronger.

Harry sped through the air as fast as the wind and as the remembrall started to fall in the air, he did as well. He dropped into a dive and caught the remembrall, pulling up his broom at the last second. He grinned at the feeling of adrenaline rushing through his body and decided that of all the things he was unsure of, he was sure of one thing; I really love flying.

He landed back on the ground and headed towards the group. Everyone was gaping at him in silence, surprised that, first of all, he defended a Gryffindor, and second of all, that he flew as if he had been training for years.

Pansy and Blaise were the first to react, running towards Harry at breakneck speed. Blaise, to praise him on his running, and Pansy, to see if he was alright. Draco just stood in the background, grinning like a madman, and after a minute, went over to join them.

Not a minute later, Severus Snape rushed towards the grounds and stood in front of the class. "Come with me, Mr. Potter."

"But, Professor, it's not his fault!" Draco exclaimed, angry that Harry would get in trouble for doing the right thing in the situation.

The potion's master turned towards the blonde boy, raising an eyebrow in question, "Oh, Mr. Malfoy? Then who's fault was it?"

That caught Draco off guard. He didn't want to sell out Crabbe, who he'd been friends with for so long, but he didn't want Harry to get in trouble. He had no idea what to do.

"It was nobody's faults but my own, Professor. It's fine," Harry said before Draco could answer. He didn't want to get off on a bad start with anyone (even if it was a little late for that) and decided he would take the fall.

Professor Snape nodded, "Follow me please, Mr. Potter."

"You're on the Quidditch team?" Draco asked Harry in confusion. Draco thought Harry was going to be expelled, not rewarded.

Harry nodded, still amazed at the whole ordeal that had unraveled throughout the last hour or two. "Snape said he saw everything and knew what really happened. He took me to Flint, the captain of the team, and recommended me to be the seeker, whatever that is. Apparently, Flint wants to know whether or not I can actually fly first so I'm meeting him tomorrow afternoon so I can prove it."

The other three were amazed, who could've guessed that Snape had seen the whole thing? Pansy wondered how much she trusted Flint, as she had seen the nasty glare he had given Harry at dinner a few nights prior but decided that he would be fine. Blaise and Draco were jealous and surprised; they had both been flying for years and now Harry had been put on the team after his first time flying? They couldn't help but be a little envious.

"Wow, congrats!" Blaise finally spoke, clapping Harry on the back, which made Harry flinch slightly. Blaise was happy to notice that the flinching had gotten considerably better over the last few days. "Was that really your first time on a broom?"

Harry nodded. Blaise continued, "You were bloody brilliant! I can't fly like that and I've been flying since I was 5!"

Harry smiled at the praise, blushing slightly. He was very happy to have such good friends and hoped that their friendship would last and maybe one day if Harry was lucky, they could help him get away from the Dursleys.

"You may enter, Poppy," Dumbledore's tired voice spoke from inside of his office as he sat at his desk. He watched as the school nurse entered his office and sat in front of him and he couldn't help but notice that she looked just as exhausted as he felt.

"What can I help you with, Poppy? How were the examinations?" Dumbledore asked kindly, straightening his posture.

She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eyes. "The examinations went perfectly fine, only about four cases of abuse this year, which is better than usual."

Albus pursed his lips. This was good news but something seemed to be bothering her. He decided that he would let her bring it up herself and would continue on as if he didn't know anything. "That is very good news, Poppy. May I ask which students?"

"Yes, Neville Longbottom, Morag MacDougal, Theodore Nott and Harry Potter." She spoke calmly, looking straight at Dumbledore, waiting to see his reaction.

Dumbledore's mouth parted slightly in shock and his eyes shot to Madam Pomfrey's, looking to see if they were truthful. Of course, this was all an act on the part of Albus. He knew of Harry's relatives and hearing of this abuse was like music to his ears. Now, all he needed to do was make sure Poppy would keep her mouth shut and his plan would work perfectly. He questioned, "And how severe were these cases?"

The healer had no idea what to think. By no means did she trust Dumbledore, but if he was lying, he was doing a damn good job of it. He seemed genuine but not blatantly surprised. This man was an enigma and she would rather be doing anything than trying to solve it. "Neville was abused by his great-uncle Algie, who, if I had to guess, wants nothing more than for Neville to surrender his inheritance to him. He only has a bruise or two but the emotional damage has made him very shy, and I recommend we inform his grandmother so she can separate them and warn her of Algernon's intentions."

Dumbledore nodded, he could have expected this. Young Neville Longbottom seemed especially shy as he entered the Great Hall and he had been incredibly surprised as he was sorted into Gryffindor. "I suspected as much, Algie always cared about the money more than anything else."

"Morag MacDougal is a different case, however. Her father seems to be the culprit in this case although I'm not sure if it is enough to have her removed from his care. She said he will slap her from time to time but not too often. Having seen the girl and experiencing her... personality, I believe that it might not be considered abuse. She has quite an attitude and I wouldn't be surprised if it was worse at home."

Dumbledore had noticed her flamboyance and agreed with Poppy, though he believed that this may require looking into it further because sometimes acting flamboyant can be considered a defense mechanism. Though, Sheldon MacDougal was an old friend of Albus' and he was uptight in the best of times. He expressed his concerns to Poppy before allowing her to continue.

"Theodore Nott has been abused by his father as well, though not severely. He only had a few small welts that appear to have been caused by a belt, I believe he only received one thrashing. He is very shy, like Longbottom, and on the mental check I found he has minor schizophrenia." Poppy continued, getting stiffer as they got closer to the most important subject of this conversation.

"Schizophrenia? How could that have happened?" Dumbledore asked, extremely confused. He had only had experience with one student with schizophrenia and they had violent episodes very often. The headmaster at the time, Armando Dippet, had been very lax with the student, not controlling him enough and he had a major episode, causing major injuries to another student. He was expelled soon after and as far as Dumbledore was aware, left the wizarding world to live with his muggle parents permanently.

"Not severe, Dumbledore. It is merely a preconceived notion that all people with schizophrenia are violent. The beginning symptoms are being emotionless, socially withdrawn, acting irrationally to criticism and having issues with sleeping. I can provide him with potions to help and it should help with the symptoms immensely." Poppy explained, surprised at his poor knowledge on the subject.

After a few more minutes of discussing how to deal with Theodore, the topic of the fourth student came to light.

"Harry Potter is being abused by his relatives quite severely. I haven't seen a case like this in years and it may actually be the worst I've ever seen. He is severely underweight, with several broken bones that did not heal properly. He clearly has been on the receiving side of many thrashings, with both a belt and just plain beatings. Emotionally, he has an anxiety disorder and minor depression." The nurse paused, looking extremely pained as her eyes darted away from the headmaster before continuing, "How could you let this happen, Albus?"

Dumbledore was not shocked. He knew the Dursleys were the worst kind of muggles and would react like this when a magic child was given to them. He pursed his lips, putting on a show for the healer in front of him.

To Madam Pomfrey's great surprise, Dumbledore pulled out his wand, pointed it at her and said the words, " _Imperio Extenditur_."

"You will not speak a word of this to anyone. You will heal Harry Potter at his assessment every year that he returns to Hogwarts. You will encourage Harry that he has to stay at his relatives for his own good." Dumbledore spoke in a level tone, watching as Poppy Pomfrey sat there staring at him with clouded-over eyes.

Albus smirked at her and let her go, watching as she walked out of the room. _Everything is playing out perfectly_.

Harry walked out onto the Quidditch pitch, following behind Marcus Flint, the team captain.

When they arrived, Flint set down a small chest and opened it, quickly explaining everything to Harry which he understood with relative ease.

Soon enough, they were in the air and Flint was watching, amazed, as Harry flew around the pitch as if he'd been doing it his whole life. He was extremely impressed and mentally thanked Professor Snape for the recommendation.

The next thing they did was to have Flint throw a golf ball as far as he could and have Harry catch it. They did this for the next half an hour, Harry having caught every single one with relative ease and Flint being totally exhausted. Seeing as Harry wasn't having any difficulty, he released the snitch and waited for five seconds, telling Harry to go catch it and after he caught it he could go back inside.

Harry caught the snitch roughly five minutes later, to Flint's amazement.

He landed back on the ground to see Flint and noticed that Blaise and Draco were sitting in the stands.

"Blimey! That was great, Harry! You're telling me that was your second time on a broom?" Flint exclaimed, excited at the display of skill he had just been shown. Harry nodded. "I wonder what you could do on an actually good broom... Maybe we could convince Professor Snape to get you one, maybe a Cleansweep Seven, or if we're lucky, a Nimbus 2000!"

Half an hour later, Harry was back in the common room with his three friends. They were already pretty much best friends and knew quite a bit about one another. They were currently working on their first essay for History of Magic, which they all thought was quite a bore except for Blaise, who seemed strangely interested in the subject.

They sat in the common room, Draco and Harry sat together on a loveseat while Blaise and Pansy were in two armchairs, on opposite sides of the table they were sitting around. The only noise that could be heard was the scratching of quills against parchment.

Suddenly, Crabbe and Goyle walked in with Theodore Nott in tow. Crabbe led the trio and it seemed he had taken over in Draco's absence while Theo was the new addition.

Crabbe stormed over the group of friends but none of them even looked up at them. This seemed to only make him angrier as he barked out, "Potter! I can't believe you ratted me out!"

Harry looked up, surprised to see the large boy standing in front of him. Draco was standing immediately, defending Harry, while Blaise and Pansy had the same reaction as Harry. Draco explained, "Snape saw everything, Harry didn't tell him anything."

Crabbe furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and exclaimed, "No way! There were no other teachers outside and there's no way he could have heard us from inside!" Having Draco defend Harry seemed to only set him off more as his face grew redder and redder by the minute.

Harry started to pack his things back into his bag and muttered, "I think I'm going to bed, I'm tired from today." If he had to be honest, he was getting quite scared of Crabbe and he was beginning to remind him of his Uncle Vernon right before one of his 'explosions'.

The moment Harry came out from behind the table and had his back turned to Harry, Crabbe tackled Harry to the ground. He rolled Harry over and began punching the daylights out of him.

Pansy screamed while Blaise and Draco ran to help, but Theodore and Goyle restrained them before they could get close.

Harry could feel nothing but pain, but he was used to it, so he took it as it came. Besides, he'd had it worse in the past. Once again, his uncle's words came back to his mind as his consciousness faded away; "Useless freak, can't even defend yourself!"

Harry's last thought before he completely passed out was a promise to himself that he would learn how to defend himself and become as powerful as he can, vowing that he would rise above the people who had hurt him.

Draco and Blaise struggled against Theodore and Goyle but were unable to do anything but watch in horror as Harry was mutilated by their fellow housemate. Pansy arrived around two minutes later with Professor Snape, but it was much too late for Harry as he had been kicked and punched repeatedly.

His face was a bloody mess and his body wasn't doing much better. Snape ran over to him, commanding Crabbe to go to his office immediately. Crabbe, having just realized the extent of his actions, was shocked as he ran out of the common room and straight to Snape's office, which was across from the potions classroom and not far from the Slytherin dorms.

Draco and Blaise were let go immediately and could only watch as Snape picked up Harry bridal-style and swept out of the dorms.

"You may enter, Minerva," Dumbledore said, feeling slightly as if he was having deja-vu as Minerva McGonagall came into his office.

"Have there been any issues, Minerva?" He asked crisply as if he was a completely innocent man with no thought in mind other than helping others.

"No, no, Albus. In fact, quite the opposite. Yesterday, during our first Transfiguration lesson for the first years, Harry Potter was able to complete the transformation easily. I wanted to test his abilities so I had him turn a mouse into a snuff box, a button into a beetle and many other transfigurations. He completed all of them perfectly, even transforming an owl into an opera glass. This child could pass him OWL's now if he wanted to!" She explained, slightly distraught by the end of her rant. She could see the interest shining in Dumbledore's eyes and the glee hidden within his facial features. She had known Albus for years and could recognize when he was hiding something.

"That is quite interesting, Minerva. Did you ask if he has been practicing over the summer?" Dumbledore inquired. He was extremely curious about this information.

His plan was to nurture Harry into being his weapon against Voldemort, but now he might even already be powerful enough. He wanted to test the boy's abilities as soon as possible. It was practically unheard of for a first year to complete an OWL level transfiguration, much less in their very first class.

Minerva continued with her story, about how he hadn't practiced at all and how she would like to help him along at his own pace, rather than his peer's. She decided against mentioning the wandless magic as she felt quite suspicious about Albus at the moment.

Dumbledore knew she was withholding information and was immediately angered, despite his outside appearance of tranquility and interest. He pulled his wand out and not a second later, he spoke calmly, " _Imperio Extenditur_."

He sighed in slight resign and commanded, "You will tell me everything about your encounters with Harry Potter thus far."

Little did he know, Minerva McGonagall was quite adept at resisting the Imperius curse.

Snape swept into Dumbledore's office without a second thought, furious at what had just occurred. He couldn't believe his Slytherin's could have done something so... Gryffindor! "Lemon drops," He said, deathly calm despite his emotions of fury.

He walked into the office without a second thought and found Minerva and Dumbledore. Dumbledore seemed slightly flustered, which surprised Severus immensely, as he greeted the potions master, "Severus, what can I do for you?"

"It appears there's been a fight of severe consequences in the Slytherin common room. I am not aware of the exact circumstances, but when Miss Parkinson brought me to the scene, Mister Potter was on the ground, bloody and unconscious, with Vincent Crabbe attacking him." Snape explained quickly, wanting the headmaster to join him to the hospital wing as soon as possible.

Albus' eyes widened and he turned to McGonagall, whom he had just finished casting the Imperius on as Severus walked up the stairs. "I'm sorry, Minerva, I must attend to this matter. Would you like to join us?"

McGonagall was wide-eyed at the news and nodded, briskly standing up and rushing out, following Severus with the headmaster trailing behind.

They arrived at the hospital wing a minute later and walked directly to Harry's bed.

Madam Pomfrey had cleaned up the blood on his face, but it didn't make the situation seem any better. He had several bruises and it was obvious that his jaw and nose were broken as well. Draco and Blaise sat on one side of the bed while Pansy sat on the other.

"Oh, Albus," Madam Pomfrey spoke distractedly. This was the first time that Albus had seen Poppy since putting her under the Imperius earlier on in the day and hoped that his command was clear enough. "I wanted you to see the extent of the injury before I fixed him completely."

She quickly cast two healing spells and fixed his jaw and nose, before taking a salve and putting it on his bruises and his black eye. "His jaw and nose were broken, as well as a moderate concussion. Of course he's all fixed up now but I'm afraid he will have quite the headache when he wakes up., which should be any minute now."

Albus nodded, understanding the situation. "Now, I'm sure you three were there as it happened?" He asked the three students sitting on his bed.

They nodded and Dumbledore requested to hear the story. Draco started, "Well we were just sitting in the common room doing our homework when Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott came in. Crabbe stood in front of us and started yelling at Harry about earlier in flying class and Harry got up to leave and when he was walking away Crabbe just tackled him and started pummelling him. Blaise and I tried to help but Nott and Goyle held us back while Pansy ran to go get help."

Dumbledore turned to Snape, looking impartial, and asked, "And where are the other three?"

"Vincent is awaiting punishment in my office and Theodore and Gregory should still be in the common room, but I'm not sure," Snape answered immediately, without hesitation.

The headmaster requested that McGonagall and Snape retrieve the two boys and Crabbe, respectively, and to bring them both to the hospital wing. Moments later, it was just the two staff and four students left in the infirmary.

Dumbledore took a seat that Poppy offered and they all sat in silence. Suddenly, breaking the silence, Harry coughed and covered his eyes, groaning in pain. "Ugh, what is that?"

He opened his eyes slowly to see Pansy and Draco asking if he was ok and Blaise giving him worried looks. What surprised him the most was to see Dumbledore sitting in the infirmary as well.

The moment his eyes met Madam Pomfrey's, she stood up straight and spoke, "Harry, you must return to your relatives. For your own good."

Dumbledore stood up immediately, speaking with authority in his voice, "Poppy. Not now."

The school nurse turned to the headmaster before shaking herself out of her trance. Before she could say anything, McGonagall burst through the doors with Theodore Nott and Gregory Goyle in tow. Not moments later, Snape returned as well with Harry's assailant.

Harry's eyes widened, completely confused at what was occurring. Madam Pomfrey's words had shaken him to his core and he was completely confused as to what was happening. He soon brushed it off and focused on the matter at hand.

"Mr. Crabbe, what do you have to say about this?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"He attacked me! I just defended myself until Professor Snape came!" Crabbe lied, surprisingly smoothly considering what had conspired and how many witnesses there had been.

Dumbledore furrowed his eyebrows, unsure of what to think of these boy's blatant lies. He wondered about the boy's Death Eater parents and pondered on whether or not they were the ones who taught him how to act under pressure. He opened his mouth to speak but was surprisingly cut off by none other than Theodore Nott.

"He's lying, Headmaster. He attacked Harry when he was trying to go to the dorms and Greg and I held Draco and Blaise from helping him." Theo spoke firmly.

Nearly everyone in the room, save Professor Snape and Theodore himself, were blatantly surprised at this revelation.

Crabbe and Goyle glared angrily at him while Harry and his friends were merely shocked. Either way, the situation would have been resolved properly and none of them believed that the headmaster would fall for Crabbe's dumb lies. Nonetheless, they were grateful for his words.

"Thank you, Mr. Nott, for being honest," Dumbledore spoke earnestly. "I am afraid that since it is so early in the term and you are all first years, I will leave the punishments to Professor Snape. Next time, I will not be so lenient as this was not only a disrespectful act to your house but to the whole school."

Crabbe nodded quickly, looking quite frightened as a small smirk appeared on Snape's face.

Dumbledore and McGonagall quickly took their leave, believing that Severus would handle the situation correctly.

"Now, Mr. Crabbe, I believe that the rules I established two days ago may not have been made clear enough. _Slytherin's are family_." Snape all but yelled at Crabbe before continuing his tirade. "We have been unfairly prejudiced for years by the other houses, therefore we've always stuck together and protected each other. To see you commit such a shameful act against your own house is not only disgraceful for you and your entire family, but to the whole of this house. I will not allow you to tarnish our name any further and you are very lucky that the headmaster didn't expel you on the spot."

At this point, Crabbe was nearly shaking in fear while the other four watched in shock as Snape completed his rant. Snape took a deep breath and began speaking again. "Mr. Goyle, you have two weeks detention with Filch. Nott, you have detention with me for the next three days. Crabbe, you have a month's detention and I will be writing to your parents about this immediately. You are dismissed."

The three boys quickly left, not wanting to face any more of Snape's wrath. The potions master turned to Harry and sighed, allowing a small amount of usually concealed emotion to flash on his face. "I apologize for not arriving sooner though I fear the consequences could have been much worse if I had not arrived when I did."

Harry accepted his apology, telling the Professor it wasn't his fault, and soon enough it was just Blaise, Draco, and Pansy in the room with him.

The rest of his friends slowly trickled out as well, leaving Draco as the last remaining friend. They chatted for a while until Harry looked over at a clock and noticed it was nearly curfew. Moments later, Draco left Harry as well, telling him he would come back in the morning to meet him for his classes.

Harry had almost no trouble falling asleep that night, surprisingly enough. He drifted off almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, wanting nothing more than to just float away...

Word count: 5015

Hope you guys enjoyed! Please leave feedback and I swear I'll update as soon as I can! Your comments encourage me to continue with the story!


	5. 4 - Halloween

Two months had passed at Hogwarts and so far, all was well with Harry and his friends.

Harry had begun his lessons with Professor McGonagall on wandless magic and transfiguration and so far, he had been extremely proficient in both areas.

McGonagall had been extremely wary of Albus after the events in his office from the first week and decided she needed to, to some extent, obey his orders. She had told him about how the hat had said he had a lot of potential, but not anything about wandless magic or that he could one day surpass Dumbledore himself. He had commanded her to nurture that potential and begin teaching him more powerful spells, to test the extent of his abilities. She underexaggerated quite a bit when describing their lessons but told the truth, for the most part.

Harry had been coming out of his shell quite a bit; he was much more talkative with his friends, flinched a lot less than he had and wasn't shy around others. All of his friends were happy to see him open up a bit more and decided that they liked outgoing Harry more than they liked shy and scared Harry.

It was the night before Halloween and Harry was in McGonagall's classroom. He had just finished a harder lesson than he had faced before; he had to wandlessly levitate multiple objects and set them back on the ground gently. They had gone from one hairbrush to four desks in the classroom. By the end of it, he was panting heavily as if he had just run a marathon. McGonagall just grinned widely and said, "Would you like some tea?"

Harry smiled lightly after recovering and found himself sitting in a chair that the Transfiguration professor had conjured for him, sipping on Earl Grey tea.

"You have made excellent progress, Harry," Minerva spoke kindly. She had grown quite close to Harry during the seven weeks that they had lessons together. He was proving extremely proficient at everything she taught him and he was an excellent learner as well as very polite and studious. Overall, he was all McGonagall wanted in a student.

"Thank you, Professor. It means a lot coming from you." Harry replied earnestly.

She smiled and offered, "You know, I taught your parents as well when they went to Hogwarts. Your father was a Transfiguration prodigy and your mother was amazing at Charms. Though, many of the teachers were surprised by your appearance when you arrived here. We all expected you to look just like your father but you seem to have mostly inherited his hair."

Harry smiled up at his teacher. He appreciated hearing more things about his parents, especially when Halloween was tomorrow and it would be ten years since they died.

The two conversed for a few minutes longer and then Harry was sent back to the Slytherin dorms.

He arrived back at the common room to see Draco and Blaise sitting at the main table, with Pansy talking with Daphne and Tracey at another. Harry smiled at Pansy when she waved at him but went and sat with Draco and Blaise.

Draco was looking as if something was irritating him but grinned as he saw Harry walk in the room. Blaise had looked bitter while talking with Draco but the moment he saw Harry, he crossed his arms and huffed, turning his head away from him.

"Hey, how was it?" Draco asked him. He knew that Harry had been receiving extra lessons from McGonagall, but none of his friends knew anything about him practicing wandless magic.

"Good, McGonagall had me conjuring a bunch of different stuff. What's wrong with him?" Harry questioned, shooting a worried look at Blaise.

Draco snorted and rolled his eyes. "He's just jealous because Pansy has a crush on you."

Instantly, mayhem broke down in the common room. Harry was utterly surprised but couldn't hide his snickers as he watched Daphne throw her shoe at Draco and it hit him square in the forehead. Pansy instantly ran out of the room, Tracey following after her but not before shooting a glare at the boys.

"I can't believe you, Draco! How could you do that to her right after she confided in you?" Daphne yelled at the blonde boy, who looked even more irritated than before as he rubbed his forehead. He rolled his eyes and everyone but Harry heard him mutter, 'not like she stands a chance with him'.

Daphne's jaw dropped. "I heard that you pureblood swine! Pansy's your friend!" She all but screeched as she stomped into the girl's dorms, where Pansy and Tracey had gone moments before.

When she walked into the dorm she immediately ran over to Pansy, who was crying with Tracey trying to support her.

"I-I can't believe he'd do that," Pansy said, barely coherent through her sobs. Daphne sat down on the bed next to her and started rubbing circles on her back, doing what she did to her little sister whenever she was upset.

To Daphne, it had been common knowledge for around a month that Pansy liked Harry. It had barely surprised her, after all, who didn't have a crush on Harry Potter? She had only spoken to him on a few occasion, but when she had she had been completely taken by his manners and kindness as well as a great sense of humor. Not to mention that he was one of the cutest boys in Slytherin, if not _the_ cutest boy. Daphne knew that Tracey had a crush on him from the first time she had seen him, she had been 'completely entranced by his amazing eyes', in Tracey's words, not hers.

Above all, she seemed to have been the only one to pick up that it wasn't only the girls in Hogwarts who had been swept away by Harry's charm.

Draco Malfoy seemed to be very discreet about it but it was painfully obvious to Daphne that he liked Harry. She had heard from other girls that they had been admiring (staring and tripping over their own feet) Harry when Draco gave them a nasty glare. She had noticed on many occasions that Draco seemed to be caught up in admiring him as well. His negative mutterings about Pansy's chances with his half-blood best friend had only fueled her beliefs.

Daphne Greengrass was arguably the prettiest first year Slytherin girl. She had copper blonde hair and dark brown eyes, as well as fair skin and a flawless complexion. The only people who could possibly challenge that title were in the room with her at that moment; Tracey Davis and Pansy Parkinson.

Pansy had curly black hair that went to just above her shoulders, tan skin and eyes as black as night. Tracey had black hair as well, except it was straight and went down to the small of her back. She had skin almost as pale as Daphne's as well as bright blue eyes.

The only other girl in Slytherin dorms was Milicent Bulstrode, who was about as manly as it gets for a girl. She was the tallest by far as well as the biggest and strongest. She had quite a few pimples and the only things the other girls were jealous of was the fact that she was far more developed than they were. She tended to spend more time around the older Slytherin's as they judged her much less harshly, but she spoke to Harry and Blaise quite often.

Pansy had decided the first day that she met Harry that she wouldn't allow herself to like him. Unfortunately, once she realized that he had grown an inch (which seemed to happen overnight) and was roughly the same height as her, her resolve collapsed. She had attempted to resist him but failed miserably, admitting to liking him to Daphne and Tracey by the end of September. Besides, she had watched some of his Quidditch practices and decided that she should stop trying to deny her feelings.

She continued to sob for only a minute or two more, before thanking her friend and resting in her bed and drifting off to sleep.

Meanwhile, back in the common room, Blaise had stormed off but not before sending Harry a hateful glare.

Draco and Harry were now amiably chatting and Harry couldn't help but think that he liked Draco much more when it was just the two of them. He seemed so tense when they were around other people but he relaxed when it was just the two of them.

Draco was falling for Harry, hard. He didn't want to admit it to anyone, much less himself. He wasn't even sure if Harry was gay but his mind didn't seem to care. He couldn't help but think about those beautiful eyes all the time and he loved Harry's personality as well. To Draco, Harry was perfect.

Harry had been totally unsure of everything. Pansy had seemed totally normal when he walked in mere minutes before the chaos ensued and he had a lot of trouble believing that anyone could like him, much less one of his best friends. After all, Harry was just a freak. A disgusting freak who deserved everything he got...

"Draco," Harry started nervously. "Is what you said true? Does Pansy actually like me?"

The Malfoy heir sighed sadly, a little voice inside of him telling him that Harry must like Pansy. He knew that pretty much every first-year girl had a crush on the brunette but didn't want to admit to himself that Harry might like them back. "Yeah, she does. She told Blaise and me right after you left for your lesson with McGonagall."

"But... why?" Harry whispered, completely as a loss.

"Come on, Harry. You're joking." Draco said bluntly, looking Harry straight in the eye. "You are so kind to everyone and you don't abide by any of the pureblood prejudice crap like I do. You are crazy powerful for a first year and you're humble as well. Not to mention every girl in our year thinks you're cute. Bloody hell, Harry! You're basically perfect!"

Harry's eyes widened and his jaw dropped slightly. Draco couldn't help but think about how cute he looked when he was flustered, but his inner thoughts drowned out his appreciation for Harry's appearance; _Oh Merlin, did I just call him perfect?_

A moment later, Harry went back to wringing his fingers nervously and scuffing his shoes on the ground. "That's not right, Draco. That can't be right."

Draco huffed slightly at Harry unwillingness to accept the truth. "Trust me, Harry. I'm not lying to you."

"But I'm a freak, Draco. I'm a disgusting, half-blooded freak who nobody has and ever will love!" At this point, Harry was standing up and looking down at Draco, unable to stop the flow of words now that it had started. "I'm completely useless and the only reason I'm half-decent at magic is that I'm going to lose it in a year or two!

Draco found himself for a complete loss of words as he witnessed Harry fly completely off the hinge. His rant had ended in him virtually shouting and now he had collapsed back onto the couch, his head in his hands. He whispered, "What do you mean?"

Harry muttered, "Just forget about it, Draco. This never happened." He stood up and walked back to the dorm room, leaving Draco in the common room, lost in his thoughts.

Harry woke up yawning, still feeling exhausted from Quidditch practice and McGonagall's training from the previous day. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and cast a wandless tempus charm, which told him that it was 7:30, so he had half an hour until breakfast.

He let out a deep breath before getting off his bed and going to the bathroom, quickly washing up, and then going down to the Great Hall.

He instantly froze when he noticed where all of his friends were sitting. Blaise was sitting with Theodore Nott, Draco was sitting with Crabbe and Goyle, and Pansy was sitting with Daphne and Tracey.

Harry had developed a small fear of what Crabbe and Goyle were capable of doing since arriving at Hogwarts (and having the fudge beat out of him by Crabbe) and he wasn't on great terms with Blaise at the moment. Harry took a deep breath and went and sat beside Pansy, despite the fact that things would be awkward between them, he wanted to get past that.

As he sat, he didn't miss the hurt look Draco sent him and pursed his lips. Pansy gasped and looked over at Harry, Daphne smiled slightly and Tracey just gazed into his eyes as if it was the last thing she was ever going to do.

"So... last night," Harry started nervously, wanting all to be forgotten. "We're still on good terms, right?"

Pansy looked surprised for a moment before smiling at him and saying, "Of course, it isn't Draco's fault he can't shut his mouth."

Harry smiled sheepishly and looked over at Draco, who didn't seem quite as happy as he had been last night while they were talking. He instantly dismissed it, Harry had yelled some totally out of the blue things that would've made no sense to anyone. How could he blame him?

He looked over at Blaise, seeing the happy expression on his face as he talked to Theo about something. Harry wondered if he would rather be friends with Theo then him. After all, Harry was just an anxious little freak who Blaise had the burden of helping through his panic attacks, right?

Pansy watched as Harry gazed at his friends. She knew something had happened between all of them, as she had noticed how Blaise was treating him the previous night before all hell broke loose and Daphne had told her that she heard yelling from the common room, which she assumed was Harry and Draco.

She leaned over to Harry and whispered in his ear, "What happened last night?"

A shiver went down Harry's spine much to Pansy's delight and he turned to her, looking slightly shameful at having been caught staring. "I'm not even sure... Blaise was mad at me when I arrived back in the common room and Draco and I had a fight after everything happened. I think I should go apologize to both of them."

Pansy nodded, admiring Harry's chivalrous personality and secretly saying, ' _thank Merlin he didn't end up in Gryffindor with a personality like that'_.

Harry stood up and walked to where Blaise was sitting, hoping to tackle the easier issue first. "Hey, Blaise."

Blaise jumped in surprise and turned to Harry. His expression slowly turned to one of slight annoyance as he huffed silently.

"I'm really sorry about what happened last night. I can try and get Pansy to change her mind if that's what's bothering you." Harry apologized, despite not having done anything wrong other than being himself.

Blaise laughed slightly and smiled at Harry after a moment. "It's fine, Harry. Not really your fault and you can't change Pansy's feelings. I'm just a bit mad because I've liked Pansy since I was about 8 and we've known each other for even longer and then you just swoop in and suddenly she likes you. Nothing you did wrong, don't worry about me. For now, I think it's Draco you need to talk to. I think everyone in the dorms heard you guys last night."

Harry went through a spectrum of emotions during Blaise's little speech: a smile at the apology, a little bit of uncertainty at the idea that Pansy likes him and surprise when he realized that he had full-out yelled at Draco last night which was something he had never done before.

He thanked Blaise for understanding and quickly moved on to Draco.

"I'm so sorry about last night, Drake," Harry said solemnly, aware of the fact that several people were watching them but doing his best to ignore it.

Draco turned to him and didn't even look surprised. He grabbed his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "It's fine, Harry. But why did you say that thing about how you were going to lose your magic soon?"

Harry sighed at Draco's question. He was completely unsure of the answer even in his own mind, but even if he did know there was no way he could tell Draco. His uncle would kill him and he'd lose his magic, even his life, even faster than he was already going to.

"I- I can't tell you. I'm sorry." Harry spoke sadly, barely even a whisper.

Draco looked resigned as he spoke again. "I'm going to have to tell someone about something, Harry. You flinch all the time, you get scared whenever people raise their voices. You think we've missed it but we've all noticed the way you cringe in pain if we touch you anywhere and now you're saying you're going to lose your magic. But you're not! It's nearly impossible for a wizard to have their magic taken away! Who's telling you all these things?"

Draco's voice continued to rise throughout his spiel but sank back down to a small whisper at the end. He sounds completely hopeless and devastated.

Harry, on the other hand, had no idea what to say. He knew that someone must have noticed but thought his friends would brush it off. It was now obvious that they hadn't as he looked around to Blaise and Pansy, who had been watching him intently. He also noticed that Draco's rant had brought many people's attention to them, including just about all the first to third years and some of the students from the Ravenclaw table.

Harry's eyes flitted desperately around the Great Hall and found himself lost to his thoughts, he was beginning to have a panic attack. Suddenly, a hand on his shoulder drew his rapid breathing short and he turned immediately to see whose hand it was and flinched at the contact. It was Professor Snape.

"Is there something going on here, boys?" The head of Slytherin house drawled out, looking in between Harry in Draco. It was quite obvious that he had noticed Harry's impending attack and Draco's relentless attitude.

Draco spoke up, with a confident look on his face, and said, "Actually, yes. I was wondering if we could speak to you in private about it though."

Harry's eyes widened as he gave Draco a shocked look. How could he betray him like this? Thoughts of betrayal and fear of someone else finding out consumed his thoughts as his breathing sped up again. He did the only thing he thought he could do. "Um, no, I think we're just fine talking through this by ourselves, Professor."

Snape raised an eyebrow as he looked in between the clearly fearful Harry and the determined Draco. "I believe you two should meet me in my office after the meal. I shall be expecting you as soon as you two are finished and please, no more outbursts, Mr. Malfoy."

The professor walked out into the hallway and turned to the direction of the dungeons. They both knew that they could leave at any time to meet him.

Harry immediately turned to Draco with wide eyes. Harry whisper-exclaimed, "How could you!?"

Draco looked him straight in the eyes without fear. "If you're not coming, I'll tell him myself."

The brunette's mind geared into motion as he began to think of ways to get out of the situation. "And what are you going to tell him? You don't know anything, Draco, other than the fact that I'm a bit jumpy."

Draco blinked as he watched Harry, the normally innocent boy, steel himself and turn into a true Slytherin. He might even admit that he felt a twinge of fear at seeing the cold look in his eyes. "I'll tell him what you said to me last night, I'll show him a memory. That, at least, will have him look into your home life."

Harry gave Draco a glare, angry at who he thought was his friend for being willing to put him in a vulnerable situation. "Well, are you finished? We might as well go now because we have Charms right after breakfast and I have a feeling this will take a while."

Draco raised an eyebrow and questioned back, "You haven't even touched the food yet and you're asking me if I'm finished."

Harry sneered, "I can go without a meal or two. Now are you coming or not?"

Draco nodded, slightly fearful at what his friend had turned himself into. "Yeah, let's go."

The boys arrived at the office around five minutes later. Snape's office was right next to the common room entrance, meaning it was very deep in the dungeons.

They stood at the door and were about to knock when Harry heard a voice from behind him. ' _Speaker... Come here..._ '

Harry gasped and turned around and seeing a painting of a regal-looking man in emerald green robes. He had no hair on the top of his head but had a long gray beard. He narrowed his eyes as he made eye contact with Harry, ' _You are a speaker, no?_ "

Harry's eyes widened and he asked, ' _What do you mean?_ '

Draco, who was still standing next to Harry, froze in fear as a shudder went down his body. All he could hear was hissing from his friend and he looked over, scared out of his mind. Something about the way the sound came so easily from his friend's mouth was a testament to the fact that Harry was more than he appeared.

' _You are a parseltongue, you speak snake. You must be my heir,_ ' The man spoke to Harry again.

' _Your heir? Who are you_?' Harry questioned, completely confused by the man in front of him.

The man smirked as he glanced from the blonde boy who was watching in fear and shock compared to the brunet who was completely enraptured in curiosity. ' _I am Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. And you are?_ '

Harry gaped and replied, ' _Harry Potter, sir. It's an honor to meet you_.'

' _So you are not one of my descendants? I could have guessed, I do not feel a connection to you as I have felt a connection to my descendants in the past. Even so, it is truly a gift to be a natural parseltongue_.' Salazar spoke to Harry praisingly.

'Thank you, sir. But, I'm speaking the language of snakes? Is that why Draco looks so confused?' Harry asked.

The man chuckled and nodded, but before he could answer, Draco shook himself out of his stupor. "You're a parseltongue, Harry!?" He exclaimed loudly.

Harry chuckled and answered, "Apparently. I thought it was normal for wizards but apparently not."

Suddenly, the door behind them opened up and Severus Snape was standing behind the two boys. "What are you boys doing out here?"

He suddenly noticed the portrait they were talking to was moving and he stepped out, closing his office door behind him. He immediately questioned, "How did you manage to reawaken it? Of all my years, I've never seen the portrait of him actually move."

"That's because I hadn't found one that was worthy," Salazar spoke up, surprising Severus even more. "But now I have. All of the founders have a portrait of themselves that will only awaken once someone who is a true member of their house has come to the school and once they leave the portrait will become dormant once again. It has only happened once before for me."

Snape nodded while the boys were just shocked. The professor asked, "Who was the student from before?"

"Why, none other than Tom Riddle. Whatever happened to the boy? He had such great ambitions and I'm quite sure he would use any means to achieve them." Salazar spoke wistfully, remembering the boy who had once come to visit him almost every day.

The two boys turned to the potions master, wondering who Salazar was talking about. Snape averted eye contact and spoke, "He became the Dark Lord Voldemort."

Draco gasped while Harry just looked plain puzzled. Salazar seemed just as shocked as they were. "Oh... How many did he..."

Snape sighed and steeled himself before looking Salazar and answering straight on. "At least a few hundred. All innocent. He went completely insane."

All was forgotten between Harry and Draco about what they were going to do that day in Snape's office. Snape sent them away immediately after noticing Salazar's distraught expression and sent them to their next class. They were reluctant but left quickly.

The rest of the day went by quickly.

Draco and Harry were back to being the best of friends after that event, ignoring all their issues in favor of the situation at hand. They wanted to know more about this 'Tom Riddle' and how he had become the Dark Lord.

They went to Charms immediately after and found themselves being greeted by Pansy and Blaise who were sitting next to each other like normal. Harry could only pray that Draco would never bring up his 'issues' again, today had been too close of a call.

Professor Flitwick was teaching them the Dancing Feet Spell, and had them all get into partners. Harry ended up going with Blaise while Draco went with Pansy as they all stood across from each other.

"Now, remember the proper wand motion, and the incantation is ' _Tarantallegra',"_ Professor Flitwick explained, before allowing them to begin.

Blaise seemed to let his anger from earlier on fuel him and he instantly shouted, "Tarantallegra!"

Harry let it hit him, as he was supposed to and laughed along with Blaise as his legs seemingly went out of control. Blaise cast the counter-curse after a minute and let Harry give it a try, which Harry mastered immediately as well. The two of them earned 10 points for their house.

The rest of the classes passed quickly but they were not quite uneventful. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, they had learned the knockback jinx. Harry had used too much power and sent Draco through a wall, though he was luckily uninjured by some miracle. Between classes, Harry had witnessed the redhead Gryffindor from his first day, Ron Weasley, mercilessly make fun of the muggle-born girl from his own house. Harry could only hope that she would be alright, but she wasn't in History of Magic that day either.

By the time the feast came around, Harry was wondering when she would make an appearance. He secretly hoped she was fine and began to listen to the muttering of gossip that surrounded him, which he usually ignored.

Daphne leaned over to Pansy and whispered, "Did you hear? That know-it-all mudblood has been crying in the loo all day." Pansy looked a little shocked and whispered back, "Really? Why?"

The Greengrass heir snickered and whispered, "Apparently that Weasley idiot made fun of her and she was right behind him." Pansy looked surprisingly sympathetic as she continued the conversation, but Harry had heard enough. Ron was officially on Harry's bad list and would avoid him at all costs.

Harry considered going to see if she was alright but figured it would be weird so he kept his mouth shut about it and decided not to check on her. He merely prayed that she would feel better soon, even if he didn't even know her name.

Suddenly, Professor Quirrell came running into the Great Hall, shouting, "TROLL! T-TROLL IN THE DUNGEON. Thought you'd ought to know..." The moment he finished, he collapsed to the ground.

Immediately chaos erupted in the Great Hall and Dumbledore was needed to return control to the situation. "SILENCE," he boomed, instantly silencing all the screams among the students immediately. He efficiently gave directions to all the students to return to the dormitories and told the teachers to join him to the dungeons.

All the Slytherin's stayed seated, as their dormitories were in the dungeons, but Harry couldn't help but notice that Ron and another Gryffindor had snuck off in the opposite direction of their house.

Immediately, Harry sprung into action. He grabbed Draco's shoulder and yell-whispered, "Draco, come with me!"

Draco looked confused but at seeing Harry's urgent look, decided to ask the questions later.

They ran into the hallway, Draco trailing behind Harry by a few feet, questioning the latter about what they were doing.

"I heard Daphne telling Pansy that the muggle-born from Gryffindor had been crying in the bathroom all day so she doesn't know about the troll! Also, I watched Ron and another Gryffindor run off in the opposite direction of the rest of them, towards the loo. I have a really bad feeling about this." Harry said quickly, hoping Draco wouldn't resist.

Draco just nodded and followed along obediently. Soon enough, the had arrived at the bathroom as they heard a loud shriek come from inside.

The boys sprang into action and opened the door, instantly assessing the situation. Hermione was sitting in the corner next to some smashed in sinks while Ron and Seamus were yelling at it.

Harry gasped as the troll turned around and swung it's club at Ron and Seamus, roaring in anger. Just in time, Harry and Draco had both pulled out their wands and sent the Knockback jinx (Flipendo!) at the troll. It managed to catch it off guard as its balance kiltered and it stumbled to the ground. Unfortunately, it was back up in a matter of seconds.

"Get out of the way!" Draco yelled at Ron and Seamus. The two Gryffindor's seemed reluctant but backed up to where Draco and Harry were standing.

As the troll went to swing at Hermione again, Harry did one of the dumbest things he had ever done before; he ran at the troll and grabbed onto the club.

After being swung around for a moment or two, he manages to land with his legs around the troll's neck and as the troll prepares to hit Hermione again, he did another _very_ dumb thing. He stuck his wand up the troll's nose.

This serves as a temporary distraction but a few seconds later, Harry found himself getting picked up by the back of the robes and thrown to the ground next to a sink, just a few down from Hermione.

His wand was still in the troll's nose, so Harry had little to no idea about what to do.

The troll swung at Draco, who tried to dodge but failed and was sent crashing into a wall. Something inside of Harry snapped as he watched the troll, who was about to bring Ron and Seamus the same fate as Draco.

He summoned all of the powers he had used in the last month or so of practicing with Professor McGonagall and pushed the troll into the wall. He screamed with effort and watched at the troll flew right through a stall, breaking a toilet in the process. It slammed into a wall and left quite a dent, but wasn't quite unconscious yet.

Harry found himself standing as he rose his right hand, picking up one of the stall doors, and whacking the troll across the head three times before he was sure that the troll was knocked out.

Hermione watched stunned from her corner. As far as she was aware, she had been the only one to witness the amazing display of magic from Harry, and it had been jaw-dropping. He had just single-handedly knocked out a troll wandlessly! On the other hand, the two Gryffindors, who were known for their bravery, had run out into the hallway right when they realized the troll wasn't going to hit them.

Draco, however, had managed to not lose consciousness throughout the whole ordeal, although it was a close call. He had witnessed the entire thing and right before completely passing out, his last thought was, _wow, I wonder if he'd ever do that to protect me._

Harry brushed off his robes and sighed, walking towards the troll and plucked his wand out of its nose, trying not to gag. "Now, if that isn't disgusting then I don't know what is," He chuckled as he walked to the sink and washed it off, not willing to touch it with his own hands.

Before Hermione could say anything, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape walked in. The moment Dumbledore saw the unconscious troll, Draco, and the two first-years, he exclaimed, "What on earth happened here?! Explain yourselves now!"

Snape instantly rushed to Draco and picked him up, rushing out of the room carrying him bridal style.

Harry stood up straight and prepared to smooth-talk his way out of it, but Hermione spoke up first. "It was my fault, Professor. I'd read about trolls and thought I could handle them. Ron and Seamus came to help, but I'm not sure where they are. Draco and Harry completely saved all three of us though. If they hadn't come, I think all three of us would be dead."

Harry looked over at her, completely stunned by her confession. She looked at him and smiled weakly as if she didn't have enough energy to do anything else, which was completely understandable. "Is this true, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked, giving him a serious look.

He nodded immediately but felt guilty about pinning the blame on Hermione. He only allowed himself to do it because technically she had put herself in danger and Draco and Harry had come to help. The story was mostly true.

"Alright, ten points from Gryffindor for your serious lack of judgment. I would have expected more rational behavior on your part, Ms. Granger. Though, I must ask, where have Mr. Weasley and Mr. Finnegan gone?"

"They ran away right after Harry saved the troll from hitting them," Hermione admitted sadly, disappointed in the overall failure of their own house in the situation.

McGonagall gasped. "And I thought... By Merlin, I would say they were cowards but it may well have saved their lives! I will take ten points when I see them next. Now do either of you need to see Madam Pomfrey?"

They both shook their heads and Dumbledore sighed, having kept surprisingly quiet throughout the conversation. "Twenty points to Slytherin, for you and Mr. Malfoy. Though I must ask, how did you do it? This doesn't look as if it was pure luck that you won with."

Harry started before Hermione could even open her mouth, "Well, Draco and I came in and saw that the troll was swinging its club at Ron and Seamus so we both used our wands to cast the knockback jinx. It did enough the knock the troll off balance so it didn't hit them. It was about to hit Hermione so I jumped and grabbed the club and got thrown to the ground. Right after I used the knockback jinx again but I really overpowered it, sending it into the wall and used the levitation spell on it's club and hit it on the head."

Dumbledore and McGonagall both looked extremely impressed and Dumbledore praised, "That's quite exceptional spellwork, Mr. Potter. Another ten points for Slytherin. Now, I'm afraid I must be going. Afterall, it is well past the curfew for an old man like me.:

When Dumbledore left, McGonagall dismissed Hermione but kept Harry back to talk to him. Once Hermione was out of sight, McGonagall asked, "What really happened?"

Harry quickly answered truthfully, giving her all the information. She was slightly confused about what to do with Hermione knowing his secret but let him head back to the dorm room. Afterall, it was his first Quidditch match the next day...

Word count: 5965

Well crap, this got a bit out of hand on the drama side but whatever... The next chapter will be the Quidditch match and also a kiss... but with who? ^-^

Thanks for reading and please leave feedback! It encourages me to update faster and lets me know about mistakes and other things of the sort! Thank you all!


	6. 5 - Qudditch

Harry woke up the next morning completely exhausted. He felt slightly magically exhausted, but it hadn't been anything big. He was exhausted because he couldn't fall asleep; he couldn't stop thinking about whether or not Draco was alright. His mind allowed him some rest when he promised to check up on him first thing in the morning.

He woke up around 7 and immediately jumped up. Harry rushed into the bathroom and came out minutes later looking more awake than before. He walked out into the common room to see Blaise and Pansy sitting at a table, they were waiting for him.

As soon as he finished walking down the stairs, Blaise's head snapped up and he exclaimed, "Harry!"

Pansy turned at his words and instantly bounded towards him and enveloped him in a hug. "Oh, Harry," she started worriedly, "We heard about what happened last night with you and Draco- _oh Draco_! Are you alright?"

Harry chuckled at her antics and said, "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. What were you guys told about last night?" He wanted to know as to debunk any rumors for his friends. He would be telling them the same story he had told Dumbledore the previous night.

"Only that you and Draco took on a full grown troll by yourselves! What really happened?" Blaise asked, seeming very curious about what had occurred. Harry felt a little bad for not grabbing Blaise too during the feast but he decided that he didn't regret it at all; he didn't want Blaise to get hurt like Draco had.

"Yeah, pretty much. Do you guys want to go and check on him?" Harry asked, not wanting to give away too many details.

They both nodded and the three of them went quickly to the infirmary. Harry was very nervous to see him again after last night and knew he would want to know all about what had happened. After seeing the troll's strength, he doubted that Draco would believe that an overpowered knockback jinx would throw it into the wall.

The trio arrived in the infirmary five minutes later and walked right in, only to see Draco talking to the school nurse. He immediately turned to them and smiled, but Harry was horrified.

Draco had his arm in a sling as well as bandages covering the majority of his torso. It was clear that he had broken several ribs and his arm. Instantly, Harry felt a lot worse for not defeating the troll sooner.

The three of them walked over and Harry muttered, "I didn't realize... I'm sorry."

Draco smiled deviously and said, "It's alright, Harry. Wasn't your fault anyway! Though I must say, I didn't get knocked out immediately and couldn't help noticing you defeating the BLOODY FULL GROWN TROLL WITH-"

His voice rose as his rant went on and Harry knew what Draco was about to say. He didn't want anyone else to know so he ran up to him and covered his mouth, whisper-yelling, "Stop, Draco! They don't know! Nobody knows but McGonagall!"

Draco looked Harry right in the eye, to see if he was lying, and then grabbed Harry's hand with his hand and let go. "Ok, I'm sorry."

Harry turned to see Pansy, Blaise, and Madam Pomfrey looking shocked at what had just happened. Harry just grinned sheepishly and Draco smirked.

"So what injuries did you get?" Blaise asked, breaking the silence nonchalantly. He swaggered up to the right side of Draco's bed and sat in the comfy chair.

"Couple broken ribs, a moderate concussion, and a broken arm," Madam Pomfrey spoke up before Draco could tell him. "Quite minor injuries compared to what could have happened. After all, both of you could have been killed!"

Harry lowered his head in agreement and Malfoy looked sheepish. Madam Pomfrey continued, "It's obvious to me that you boys regret your decision, so I will allow Mr. Malfoy to go to the Quidditch game, but I want him back immediately after! If all goes well, he will be completely healed by tonight."

Harry was confused for a moment, having forgotten about the Quidditch match and then realized, "Oh god! Today's the first match! Against Gryffindor! What time is it?"

Madam Pomfrey looked over at a clock and said, "Eight, breakfast has just started."

The three of them quickly took their leave but not before Draco said, "Good luck, Harry! I'll be watching so you better win! It's the least you owe me after last night!"

This comment only made Harry feel worse as they headed off to the Great Hall. He was extremely nervous and had no idea what to expect.

One step into the Great Hall and Harry was attacked by a bushy-haired Gryffindor. "Harry!" Hermione squealed ecstatically. "Good luck today! I'm sure you'll do amazing!"

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before running back over to the Gryffindor table, giggling with her friends who were all wondering about what it was like.

Harry froze and looked over at Blaise, who was shocked as well but when he noticed Harry's expression began full-out laughing. Pansy was quite the opposite, she was infuriated at the fact that she had the audacity to do what she had just done.

"I can't believe that dirty mudblood would ever do such a thing!" Pansy exclaimed with a horrified tone. "That- that- that _cow_!"

Blaise laughed a little more, though more quietly, as they headed over to their table. All of the other first-years had seen it as well and the girls were fuming. They were all muttering among themselves angrily, many of them either glancing at Harry longingly or angrily. The boys, however, were either angry at Harry for letting a muggleborn touch him, much less kiss him, or laughing at his facial expressions.

Harry's eyes were still wide as he sat and ate his breakfast, not even thinking about what he was eating. He was in shock at how Hermione could do that. For Merlin's sake, he didn't even know her name before last night! He just prayed that she would leave him alone after that.

Harry walked out onto the pitch, steeling himself as he heard Lee Jordan announcing, "Hello, and welcome to Hogwarts' first Quidditch game of the season! Slytherin versus Gryffindor!"

The players took their position as the captains, Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint, shook hands. Madam Hooch looked at them both sternly and said, "Now, I want a nice clean game from both of you."

Madam Hooch kicked the trunk and the game started. Harry flew to the top and started looking for the snitch and also glancing at his friends in the crowd. Draco was sitting with Pansy and Blaise on the Slytherin side with everyone else.

When Pansy had told Draco about Hermione kissing Harry, many emotions had flooded over Draco, but sadness was the most prominent. Of course, Harry didn't want to be with him and he probably never would. Harry's straight and has every girl in years one through three in love with him. Harry wouldn't even consider him.

Of course, Draco now knew a secret of Harry's; he could do wandless magic and he was quite good at it too. Draco had been simply amazed at the display of power Harry had put on, it was a feat that probably couldn't have been performed by Draco's own father! This only proved to make Draco sadder, after all, he had put so much effort into saving Hermione but had done nothing when it came to him.

The amount of leverage that Draco thought he had gained over the girl was immediately destroyed as he remembered the fact that she had seen it too. She had probably lied in his defense too, as only McGonagall knew of his secret.

As the scores began racking up on both sides, Draco continued to think about Harry and his many secrets in between cheering at the top of his lungs every few minutes.

Harry, on the other hand, was getting more and more nervous as he circled the pitch, looking for the snitch. The Gryffindor seeker was Patricia Stimpson, a plain-looking girl with a plain-looking face and brown hair pulled back into a ponytail.

The score was about 70-50 for Gryffindor when Harry first spotted the snitch. He was about fifty feet away from it but he was closer to it than Patricia so he went after it immediately.

The moment he started to head for it, his broom began bucking like a bull trying to get a bull-rider off of its back. Harry tried to steady his broom and soon realized that it wasn't him controlling the broom anymore, it was probably being jinxed.

Harry looked towards the teacher's stands and noticed both Quirrel and Snape looking straight at him and muttering. With a burst of magic from Harry, a small flame started at the bottom of Snape's robes, and because of the fact that they were sitting next to each other, Quirrel's robes caught flame as well. Moments later, both men were panicking and the jinx was canceled.

After coming back to focus, Harry immediately noticed that the Gryffindor seeker was chasing the snitch. Harry used his Nimbus 2000 to chase the snitch at top speeds.

Moments later, Harry had caught up with the seeker and found themselves neck in neck but Harry's broom was faster so he soon surpassed her. He was about to grab the snitch when he noticed his broom was slowing down quite rapidly.

He looked back right when Patricia pulled on the tail of his broom and sent him spiraling away, recovering after about five seconds. The snitch was lost again.

The whole crowd booed at Patricia's unsportsmanlike conduct and moments later, Madam Hooch's whistle was blown.

Lee Jordan had a hard time accepting this, yelling blasphemous things about how it wasn't a foul before McGonagall cut him off, stating bluntly, "I don't know whether or not you're blind but it was quite obvious to me and the rest of the crown that Miss Stimpson grabbed the back of his broom! If you don't know a simple case of blagging when you see one then maybe you're not fit to be the commentator of this match!"

Jordan quieted down after that and all of the Slytherin's respected Professor McGonagall just a little bit more.

Moments later, Adrian Pucey was taking a penalty shot for Slytherin against Gryffindor keeper Oliver Wood. After Adrian did an amazing move where he feinted to the left, waited for the keeper to be convinced he was going to stay there before using his superior speed on the broom to move in the opposite direction and shoot on another hoop, getting it in.

This exceptional penalty shot was met with loud cheering from three of the four houses and about a minute later, the game started back up again.

Both Harry and Patricia were back to prowling for the snitch and this continued for about five minutes and Gryffindor was slowly gaining the advantage. Harry decided that he was in urgent need when the score reached 120-200 for the Gryffindors.

When Harry finally spotted the snitch, he noticed it at the exact same moment as Patricia. It was directly in between them.

They both flew towards it at top speed. Neither knew when the other was going to stop but neither of them wanted to back off either.

Harry's heart pounded in his chest as he considered the consequences. I either run into her and risk getting very hurt or I back off and let her get the snitch? Ultimately, he decided that it was a game of nerve and knew that he would not back off.

The snitch stayed perfectly still as the two people came at it from both sides. Once they got painfully close, Patricia veered off and Harry went to grab the snitch, but it flew away.

Patricia looked, expecting to see him having caught it but saw him still chasing it, arm outstretched. She began to fly where she believed she would be able to intercept it but by that time, Harry had already caught it.

The crowd erupted into cheers after the tension of the previous moment dissipated and when after the two teams landed, shook hands and walked off, dozens of people came running to Harry.

The first to reach him was Hermione and she jumped right onto him and kissed him on the lips.

Harry staggered backward at the sudden force attacking him and his face. He instantly tried to remove her but found that her legs were wrapped around him. He fell to the ground, unable to stand with the taller girl latched onto him.

Her lips were attacking his roughly and he wanted no part in it. He wrenched his head back and realized it was Hermione Granger, the smart Gryffindor who he had saved from the troll. He noticed how bad this must look, with her straddled around his waist and exclaimed, "What are you doing!?"

She looked shocked for a moment before gathering herself and putting on her best look of seductiveness, which only succeeded in repulsing Harry further. He all but shouted, "Get off! Why would you even do this? We barely know each other!"

She smirked and refused to get off. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Because I know your secret... I know just how powerful you really are."

Harry blanched at her words and looked at her, completely stunned at what was occurring. Was she trying to blackmail him?

"Get off, I'm being serious," Harry said, giving her his most menacing glance. She looked reluctant but complied with his words, slowly getting off. He watched her walk away until she was completely out of sight before sighing and laying down on the ground. The crowd that had been heading toward him had either been totally shocked or totally infuriated.

He took a deep breath and stood back up, observing his surroundings. He noticed that almost everyone was staring at him and he wished he could just disappear; even having the Dursleys hurt him would be better than having all the attention on him, especially for such a vulgar thing.

Harry quickly headed towards Draco, Pansy, and Blaise, who all seemed shocked into submission.

Once he arrived at the group, Draco took one look at him, glared, and spat out, "I can't believe you would stoop that low, Harry. Even I thought you had higher standards than your father but I guess you both like filthy mudbloods."

Draco sneered at him and turned on his heel, walking toward Crabbe and Goyle, who he had somehow managed to stay friends with after their fight in September.

Harry turned to Blaise and Pansy, looking desperate as he hoped he still had them at least. Of course, his hopes were unfounded as Pansy looked betrayed and disgusted. "You're disgusting, Harry. Stay away from me and Draco, and you know what everyone else for that matter! You don't deserve anyone and I hope you get sent back to whatever hellhole you came from. You're just a freak."

Pansy's words seemed as if she didn't even believe they were true and that gave Harry at least a little bit of hope. Overall, he was mostly confused about how they had misinterpreted the whole situation so badly. He imagined that he looked pretty freaked out himself over the Gryffindor throwing herself at him.

Harry turned to Blaise in a last-ditch attempt and said, before he could be interrupted, "Please don't hate me, Blaise. I don't like her, never have and hopefully never will. She just attacked me and I couldn't do anything!" He apologized as quickly as he could, fearing the worst reaction.

Blaise just gave him a small understanding smile and said, "It's fine, I believe you. It was kind of obvious that you weren't into it at all and wanted her to get off. But I can't believe the audacity! For a muggleborn to do that to an Heir of an Ancient and Noble House is basically social suicide! All of the purebloods are going to hate her now!"

Harry sighed in relief, thanking Merlin that he had at least one friend left who understood. He asked, "What did it look like was happening?"

"Basically she threw herself on you, wouldn't get off, and you were trying to get her off. Or at least that's what it looked like to me," Blaise said nonchalantly as if Pansy and Draco hadn't just insulted and run off.

"Then what were they thinking when they saw it?"

"Probably that it was a mutual thing. I bet you anything they both have their heads so far up their asses that they can't even see that you pretty much had to threaten her to get her off." Blaise voiced, shocking Harry with the vulgarity of his words. Harry was sure he had never heard Blaise curse at all and he was really surprised.

Harry let out a deep breath and slumped, suddenly feeling exhausted. He looked over to the castle to see Draco walking in, probably going back to the hospital wing. Harry felt as if he wanted to cry but at the same time, he was very angry with the two of them, mostly Draco though.

Pansy had sounded kind of sad when she had insulted him as if she didn't want to be saying it but she felt like she had to. Harry knew the feeling and had already forgiven her. Her words had hurt nonetheless. He wondered if he truly was disgusting. After all, Harry was weak enough to allow his relatives to torment him mercilessly at every chance. What kind of Slytherin was he if he didn't stand up for himself?

Another thought struck him; should he really do as Pansy had said? 'Go back to the hellhole you came from'? The words had hit him hard and reminded him that no matter how much time he spent away from the Dursleys, he would always belong there as he deserved every punishment. They were just teaching him some discipline after all.

Draco, on the other hand, had insulted both his parents and him. Harry hadn't known his parents but he still felt a fierce protectiveness over them. He wanted to defend their will and legacy after their death because it wasn't as if anyone else was going to. He decided that if he was to forgive Pansy easily, Draco would need to apologize for what he said.

Harry was also extremely hurt by the tone that Draco had held when he was talking to him. He had practically spat out his name as if he was lower than him. It made Harry consider whether or not he truly was on equal terms with Draco. After all, Draco came from a rich pureblood family that had groomed him for his whole life and treated him like a prince. Harry, on the other hand, was looked down upon constantly by his relatives and was treated worse than a house-elf.

All these thoughts ran through Harry's head as he walked back to the castle with Blaise by his side. The celebration had been dulled down severely by Hermione's attack and Harry being virtually shunned by two of his best friends. Harry sighed as his heart broke just a little bit more than it already had been.

Draco was furious. How could Harry do something like that with a mudblood of all things! He didn't know exactly what had happened but he had seen enough to know that he was kissing Granger and not trying at all the get her off him.

What hit Draco the hardest was the fact that she had leaned in, whispered something in his ear, and he paled! She must have said something about them meeting up later! How could either of them had hidden a relationship from the other Slytherins! As far as Draco was concerned, he had never seen Harry speak with Hermione before the incident from the night before.

Draco and Pansy walked back into Hogwarts together, heading back to the hospital wing. She had pulled him away from Crabbe and Goyle, telling him she wanted to talk and that he should be getting back to the hospital wing. He had begrudgingly agreed, knowing she was going to talk about Harry (who Draco had heard her verbally shun him as well), which was a topic he didn't want to approach at the moment.

"You know, Draco, I really like Harry." Pansy stated plainly, looking him straight in the eye.

Draco tensed. Did she know about him liking Harry as well? Or was she just trying to rub in the fact that he didn't stand a chance because he was straight. Either way, Draco brought out his inner Slytherin and brought himself to not panic, telling himself that there was no way she could possibly know.

"I know," Draco said bluntly, looking at her as if she was dumb, on the inside he was hoping she had no idea about his secret attraction towards Harry. "You've told me before, Pans. Don't you remember? Right before that Greengrass hag threw her shoe at me?"

Pansy laughed a little at the memory before scowling, "It's not like you didn't deserve it. Anyway, what I mean is that I _really_ like Harry. Like, I wanted to see if my parents could try and persuade the person representing him as Lord Potter before he turns 17 could set up a betrothal for the two of us."

Draco nearly choked on his own saliva and his eyes looked like they were going to fall out of his head. "What? We're only 11 and you want to set up a betrothal! Besides, Harry knows little to nothing about pureblood customs and you just mouthed him off!"

Pansy pursed her lips as her eyes darted to the floor. "I said wanted, as in past tense. Though I would still consider it, I don't know if he'll want me after what just happened. But how could he do that with a muggleborn of all things! Does he have no dignity?"

"I'm not sure, Pans. It sure was dumb of him though. I hadn't even seen them interact before yesterday!" Draco said, not even realizing that he had brought up the subject of Halloween, which he and Harry had been avoiding desperately.

"Yeah, what even happened yesterday?" Pansy asked, the Slytherin side of her knowing that Draco was angry with Harry at the moment and would be more prone to tell her about what had happened the previous night.

"I don't know if I can tell you," Draco stammered nervously. "Harry would be-"

"Harry's not here, is he? Besides, why does it matter so much to him? Besides, he betrayed both of us and Blaise by kissing that mudblood. It'll also be easier to put the pieces together if I know the full story," Pansy reasoned, trying to get the full story out of him.

Draco let out a deep breath, giving up on holding back on Harry's secret. He spilled all of the events from the previous night, from Harry dragging him out of the Great Hall to Harry using wandless magic to save Hermione's life.

Pansy was totally shocked. Harry could use wandless magic? She wondered about it and thought about the things she had heard about wandless magic in the past. It hadn't been very much but she remembered her family briefly talking about it during a dinner and saying that wandless magic was merely a tale and an impossible feat. After all, the last person known to have completely mastered wandless magic was Merlin himself. None had tried other than Dumbledore, who had quite a bit of trouble but could manage small things, and Voldemort (it was unknown how developed he was with the skill).

She was also shocked that Harry had used so much magic to defend Hermione, but she understood that he had little to know choice. It had obviously been a decision that could risk Harry's life as much as Hermione's.

"Who else knows?" She asked Draco, trying to get as much information as she could out of him.

By this point, they were in the hospital wing and Draco was sitting on the edge of his bed with his feet hanging off the side. He looked rather undignified compared to the normally well put-together Malfoy that was usually in his place. Pansy was sitting in the chair across from him, looking severely interested in what Draco had to say.

"He said only McGonagall knew before last night. So now it would be me, Hermione and you. Oh, he's going to be so mad once he finds out I told you!" Draco exclaimed, suddenly regretting telling Pansy about Harry's secret. After all, Harry had trusted him with it and he felt like he needed to protect it on some level.

"Told her what?"

The voice shocked Pansy and Draco out of their conversation as they turned toward the person who had spoken; Blaise. He was alone as he walked toward them casually, as if nothing had happened.

"Nothing," Draco recovered quickly. "Why aren't you with Harry? Don't tell me you insulted him too, did you?"

Blaise chuckled shortly and responded, "No, I'm not dumb enough to have not noticed what really happened, unlike you two."

Pansy gasped as Blaise's rudeness while Draco furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Blaise with confusion before asking, "What do you mean?"

"I mean the fact that that Granger girl basically attacked him and he had literally nothing to do with it! For Merlin's sake, he had to threaten her to get her off of him!" Blaise exclaimed, his voice rising throughout his little spiel.

"That's crap, Blaise. He didn't do anything to get her off of him." Pansy said shortly, refusing to accept his story. Draco, on the other hand, realized that he had been a total idiot.

"Oh Merlin, I insulted his parents over something he didn't even do! I wonder if he'll ever forgive me," Draco moaned miserably. He regretted his actions and regretted them completely.

Pansy looked in between the two of them, slowly coming to a realization, but stayed silent. She knew Harry would understand but could only pray that things would return to normal in the future.

"Now what were you guys talking about?" Blaise asked, clearly still angry with them but refusing to make it overtly obvious.

"Just what happened last night," Pansy said merrily, clearly trying to toy with Blaise. Draco shot her a warning glare.

"You mean with the troll? What else happened?" Blaise asked, giving in to his curiosity. Draco groaned and ran a hand through his normally polished hair.

Blaise saw that he wasn't going to get the information easily and immediately said, "Draco, if you don't tell me I'll tell Harry that you told Pansy and everyone else and I'm just about the only person he trusts fully right now."

Draco hunched over, putting his head in his hands and quickly spilled the story. Blaise was totally shocked and said, "Well, Hermione's behavior makes more sense now for sure."

The other two looked at him immediately, asking the question with their eyes.

"Have you not noticed that Hermione is about as power-hungry and jealous as it gets? In class whenever Harry succeeds first, which is pretty much every time unless he doesn't try, she always glares at him and gets really angry. She's a muggleborn but she's at the top of all our classes, only second to Harry. She's do everything she can to mess things up for him and now that she knows his secret, she can blackmail him. I mean, she basically tricked you guys into seriously hurting Harry's feelings pretty easily. I'm surprised she wasn't placed in Ravenclaw, or even Slytherin despite being a muggleborn."

When Blaise finished his explanation, both Draco and Pansy looked at him in surprise. Since when did he have such observational skills and how did he come to a conclusion like that with so little information?

Blaise chuckled and shrugged, "You guys should probably apologize to Harry as soon as you can, especially you, Draco. He's really torn up about this and you both know how he gets when he's isolated."

They both nodded and sighed deeply, now knowing how big of a mistake they had made. Draco quickly promised to apologize the next time he saw him and Pansy asked where he was so she could go and apologize.

"I think he's in the common room with Daphne and the rest of them. You might want to get on it before he replaces you guys completely." Blaise said nonchalantly.

Pansy left the room quickly, rushing over to the common room and five minutes later, she found herself standing right in front of him.

"I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't know what had really happened and now I understand about everything! I know I don't deserve but I hope you'll forgive me!" Pansy said quickly, not wanting to give him a chance to interrupt her.

Harry just smiled at her, his green eyes shining brightly and melting her heart just a little bit more than it already had. He said, "It's fine, Pansy. Don't worry about it. I could already tell that your words were a little less than truthful."

Pansy smiled and let out a deep breath, knowing that this whole bit of drama was over and she could have a chance of being with him again. She sat down, thanking Harry profusely, before observing everyone's position in the common room.

Harry was sitting on a couch next to Tracey and Daphne with Theo and Goyle at the couch across from him. Harry and Goyle had been in the midst of a game of wizards chess when Pansy had arrived. Pansy couldn't help but notice that Daphne was sitting a little too close to him for Pansy's comfort and Tracey was just lost in his eyes, as usual.

"Is Draco...?" Harry trailed off, hoping for the best.

"Apologetic? Yes, very, he feels terrible and as soon as he sees you he's planning on apologizing." Pansy said, giving Daphne a dirty look as she leaned in and whispered something in his ear. He blushed before making the next move in his game of chess.

"Maybe I should go down and visit him... Is Blaise with him?" Harry asked, to which Pansy nodded eagerly. She wanted to get Harry as far away as possible a soon as she could.

Harry sighed and stood up, not noticing Daphne and Tracey's yearning looks as he walked out of the common room, Pansy in tow as he headed towards the infirmary.

They arrived and Harry walked in first. The first thing he heard was Blaise's voice saying quietly, "But wandless magic? I knew he was strong but that's a whole other level."

Both of their heads shot to the door to see a crestfallen Harry staring right at Draco. "You told him?" He asked weakly, with a lost look in his eyes.

Draco went to talk, before looking down. "I'm so sorry, Harry. For everything. I didn't mean anything I said and I needed to tell Blaise and Pansy so they could understand the whole story. I swear I only told those two."

Harry had a million thoughts running through his head but he blocked all of them out and decided he had had enough drama in the past week than he ever needed. He muttered, "It's fine. Don't worry about it, Draco. Thank you for being honest."

Harry turned around and walked away, leaving the other three in total shock as Harry walked back to the common room.

Little did they know that Harry Potter was facing quite a bit of inner turmoil about whether or not he would ever trust his friends with a secret again...

Next chapter will be published once we hit 10 reviews! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy it!


	7. 6 - Unexpected Invitation

The next month and a half passed quickly for Harry and his friends, but not in a good way.

Harry had been taking his studies much more seriously, or at least that's what it seemed like to Draco, Pansy, and Blaise. He had started talking to them less and less as the holidays approached. In truth, Harry had been focusing a lot more on his lessons with McGonagall, where he was studying to become an animagus.

Harry had decided after the day of the first Quidditch match that he wouldn't trust the others as much as he had. It had hurt him deeply when he found out Draco had revealed his secret before even knowing it for 24 hours. He had instead, decided to spread himself out amongst the Slytherins and to make allies amongst his peers.

He still spoke with Draco, Pansy, and Blaise quite often, like at meals or in the common room but other than that, he spent a lot of time with Theo or Daphne.

Harry had been planning on staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, but his plans were quickly changed when he received a letter on the 15th of December.

He had been sitting in the Great Hall with Draco when his owl, Hedwig, flew toward him and dropped a letter in his lap. Harry was quite confused when he picked up the letter, noticing it had a stamp that was normally used on muggle postage.

When he saw the name, his heart skipped a beat and his breathing sped up.

 _Vernon and Petunia Dursley_

 _Number 4, Privet Drive_

 _Little Whinging, Surrey_

He quickly opened the letter and let out a weak gasp of disbelief as he looked inside.

 _Harry,_

 _We hope your time at your school has been enjoyable. We wish for you to return for your holidays._

 _Vernon_

Harry folded the letter and slid it back into the envelope, losing himself to his thoughts. Had he done something wrong? Why did they want him there when they didn't need him?

He let out a shuddering breath as he was pulled out of his thoughts. Draco was shaking his shoulder and asking "Harry? Are you alright?"

Harry nodded briskly, saying, "Yeah, just fine."

"What was that letter?"

"My relatives just want me to come home for the holidays. It's just a bit surprising is all." Harry explained, hoping for no further questions.

Draco furrowed his eyebrows and went back to his breakfast. It hurt him to know that Harry no longer trusted him and swore to himself that he wouldn't let him get any farther. He would fix their relationship and made it better than what it had been.

"You know, Harry, you can talk to me. I know your relatives are awful... worse than awful... but you can talk to me about it. I can help you. Please, Harry." Draco begged, near tears. Something inside of him wanted nothing more than to be by Harry's side and help him.

Harry looked over at Draco and blinked dumbly, steeling himself and lying to Draco's face as he had done so many times over the past months. "What do you mean, Draco? You don't even know my relative's names, much less their behavior. Just leave it alone, please."

Draco blinked back tears and let out a deep breath. He had no idea what to say any more to Harry and was completely lost as to what to do.

Draco stood up and looked at Harry desperately, before turning on his heel and walking out of the Great Hall. The moment he stepped out of the door, he ran into none other than Ron Weasley himself.

"Watch where you're going, Malfoy," Ron spat at him angrily, glaring at him as if he'd insulted his mum.

Draco tried to walk away without saying anything, wanting to avoid anyone and get to Blaise and Pansy as soon as possible, but Ron blocked his way and didn't let him pass. Draco muttered, "Get out of my way, Weasley."

Ron smirked, seeing Draco was in a hurry and decided he would make Draco pay for taking Harry away from him before he had the chance to become friends with the powerful celebrity. "Not so strong without Potter protecting you, huh?"

Draco was not in a mood to be tested and snarled, "Get out of my way or I'll hex you into next week."

"I'd like to see you try," Ron smirked as he watched Draco have a small moment of indecision before taking out his wand and pointing it at him. A crowd had slowly begun to appear around them, making both boys slightly uneasy.

" _Flipendo_ ," Draco shouted, letting his anger take hold of his magic, sending Ron backward down the hallway.

Ron recovered quickly and stood, shouting a curse that Fred and George had used on him in the past; " _Levicorpus_!"

Draco found himself the target of laughter by every member of the hallway as he was hung upside down in the air. He was deeply ashamed of himself as he worked towards undoing the curse, reaching for his feet but finding that nothing was holding him up.

Just when Draco began to feel like he could off himself in embarrassment, a deep voice rang throughout the hall, shutting up all of the laughter. " _Liberacorpus_!"

Draco fell in a heap on the ground, trying to see who his savior was. It had been none other than Severus Snape.

"Weasley, how many brain cells do you require to know that there is no magic allowed in the hallways nor are you allowed to use it against other students! Clearly, more than you have," Snape sneered at Ron, whose face was about as red as his hair as several people snickered throughout the crowd.

"Thirty points from Gryffindor, and detention for the next week with me. Maybe this will help cure your impudence and idiocy, though I'm not anyone can help you with that." Snape continued bashing on the pureblood, causing more laughter throughout the crowd at Ron's obvious confusion as Snape's word choice. Snape said, "Draco, come with me," before allowing everyone else to enter into the hall.

"We need to do something about Harry. He's drifting away from us way too much and I'm worried we're going to lose him completely." Draco whispered to Pansy and Blaise, who were sitting around a table in the corner of the common room.

"Why do you think he's drifting away though? Does he not trust us?" Blaise asked, slightly obliviously.

Draco shot Blaise a look, asking silently if he was serious. "Of course he doesn't bloody trust us! Not after Halloween and it's only gotten worse since then! We all, save Blaise, turned our backs on him, and now he doesn't trust us with anything!"

Pansy pursed her lips while Blaise flushed slightly at the insult, looking down at his feet. After a few moments of silence, Pansy spoke again, "We should corner him and have an intervention."

"I think that'll just make him trust us even less. I spoke with him this morning during breakfast and he got a letter from his relatives. He went really pale so I asked him what it was. His relatives want him home for the holidays." Draco spoke with dread, looking both of his friends seriously.

Pansy gasped in disbelief at his words, "And he's going to?"

"He doesn't exactly have much of a choice, now does he?" Draco stated plainly, getting slightly fed up with his friends. "Snape brought me into his office this morning, after my fight with the weasel and he asked if something was bothering me. I didn't know whether to tell him or not because Harry might start trusting us even less if I tell him."

Blaise leaned back in his chair, letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Bloody hell, why does this have to be so complicated?"

They all sat in silence, none of them knowing the answer to Blaise's question. They were snapped out of their thoughts but none other than Theodore Nott coming up and sitting with them.

"What's wrong with Harry?" Theo asked straight out, not even waiting to greet them or be greeted.

Over the past few months, Theo and Harry had grown closer, spending more time together in class than Harry spent with the rest of them. It was quite obvious to everyone that Harry confided quite a bit more in Theodore than everyone else, despite the fact that Theo had aided Crabbe in beating Harry up in October.

Draco shot him a small glare, he was jealous of the developing friendship between Harry and Theo. He wanted Harry to like him more than ever now and it was affecting him more deeply than he was letting on. He sneered, "Wouldn't you like to know, Nott? After all, wasn't it you that held me back while Crabbe was beating him up?"

Theo sighed, he had very deep regrets surrounding those events but Harry had long forgiven him. Unfortunately, Draco and Blaise hadn't. They still had a deep distrust for Theo and he had a feeling that those feelings wouldn't be fading anytime soon.

"I apologized for that months ago, can't you just let it go? Besides, Harry forgave me and he was the one who actually suffered for it. Now, what's wrong with him?" Theo persisted. He had only come to talk to them for one reason and that reason was Harry.

Theo wasn't an idiot and he knew that Harry was abused by his relatives. He didn't judge him because he himself was abused by his father as well. _You probably have it a lot worse than he does, too._ The voice said bitterly.

The voice had haunted Theo for years, always putting its two cents in and feeding off of what Theo guessed was his negative emotions. He hated it because it always said the worst things about people, especially Harry. The voice thought that Harry was weak. It thought that Harry was just whining because his relatives hit him once or twice but Theo knew that Harry had never complained about it. Theo wasn't even sure that Harry was being abused, the only indicators were the flinching and his behavior when people around him got angry. The voice, on the other hand, hated Harry and thought he was whining constantly. The voice hated people who were weak. The voice _hated_ Harry.

Blaise sighed bitterly and looked anywhere but Theo. "Why should we tell you?"

"Because at this point in time, I'm Harry's best friend. He actually trusts me and I actually consistently treat him like a friend, unlike you guys. He was really pale and jittery today, he kept on getting distracted, which is really unusual for him."

"Well, if he trusts you so much, why don't you ask him yourself?" Draco said, getting irritated that Theo was acting like he was the only person who was by Harry's side.

Theo sighed, slightly disgusted by Draco's immature behavior. "I have asked, he keeps on saying nothing is wrong. I swear if you guys did something to him again..."

Pansy shrieked, "How dare you! We care for him immensely and he's all of our best friends! How can you say something like that? You're acting like we killed someone but it was just a misunderstanding!"

"For someone like him, a misunderstanding is a betrayal of trust. You made his trust, which was hard to gain in the first place, practically unattainable. You're ruining what little he has left by turning your back on him at every turn. Now tell me, what's wrong with him?" Theo shot back, letting his other side slowly get the better of him before reigning it back.

Blaise started, "We're not telling-"

"His relatives want him home for the holidays." Draco cut Blaise off, much to his astonishment.

Theo nodded sharply to Draco in thanks before standing up stiffly and leaving quickly. He walked into his dorms where he crashed on his bed, breathing deeply and trying not to lose control of himself.

 _What a little priss_ , the voice said to him. _He's so weak, getting so worked up about going home for a few weeks. Merlin, why do you even spend time with him?_

Theo threw his legs over the side of his bed and threw his head in his hands, fidgeting incessantly. His fingers were drumming against his temples quickly, without stop. He was trying to shut up the voice as it continued throwing insults at one of his only friends.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," He muttered repeatedly, wanting nothing more than for the voice to just be quiet for once.

Theo began breathing quickly as he muttered repeatedly before a voice broke through his thoughts. "Are you okay, Theo?"

He snapped his head around to see none other than the subject to many of his thoughts, Harry himself.

Theo chuckled, "Yeah, I'm fine."

A week later, Draco, Blaise, Pansy, and Harry were walking to the astronomy tower together when suddenly, one of the staircases changed underneath them, leading them in the wrong direction.

They unknowingly reached the third corridor and Harry asked, "What are we doing here? This doesn't look familiar at all."

The three of them surrounded Harry and Draco said, "Let's sit down, class isn't for twenty minutes anyway."

Harry looked suspicious, but sat down anyway, watching carefully as they all settled down around him. Pansy sat much closer to Harry than Draco wanted her too, and she started, "Harry, we really care for you, and we want you to be happy. We want you to tell us about your relatives."

A moment later, Harry found himself standing and attempting to walk away as quickly as he could but he was held back by Blaise, who refused to let him past.

Harry felt anger and fear welling up inside him as he listened to Blaise say, "Please, Harry, we just want to help you. We care about you."

"I- No, My relatives are good to me. I don't know what you guys mean. You don't know anything about them and you aren't in any place to judge them." Harry lashed out, hoping desperately that his friends would back off. Draco had confronted him about this many times before, but he had never expected that all three of them would corner him.

Draco put his hand on Harry's shoulder, which Harry flinched instinctively at. Draco exclaimed, "Just look at you, Harry! Why else would you flinch unless you had reason to."

"Maybe because you guys are cornering me in a place that I've never been!"

They all took a step back, realizing the validity of his statement. Harry unexpectedly lashed out, sending a wave of wandless magic throwing Draco and Blaise away from him.

Draco gasped in pain as his back hit a ledge while Blaise was sent rolling away.

Pansy took multiple steps back in fear and stared at him in a mix of amazement and terror.

Harry snarled at them, looking angrier than they had ever seen them. "That's the least of what I can do to you guys. Now leave me alone!"

Harry ran off down the hallway. Pansy ran up to Draco and Blaise to see if they were ok. Blaise was just winded and Draco looked more emotionally hurt than physically.

They all ran off down the hallway, following in the direction that Harry had gone. They went into the room with the first door they saw, Pansy immediately calling out, "Harry!"

This call, however, was completely useless and only caused the massive three-headed dog in front of them to start growl and snap at them, only being held back by the massive chains around their necks.

The three of them left the room and ran back where they came from, leaving Harry all alone in the third-floor corridor...

Harry sat there alone in the corridor, sobbing with regret. He couldn't believe what he had just done to his friends. He used his magic on them. He had hurt them. He wasn't worthy of them. He didn't _deserve_ them...

The next day, while everyone was going home for the holidays, Harry was detached and emotionless. He had completely missed astronomy the day before and he didn't return to the common room until very late that night.

Theo had been trying his best to get Harry back to his normal self but it just wasn't working.

Everyone was climbing onto the train, Harry sitting in a compartment with Theo, Daphne, and Tracey. If Harry was being honest, he didn't like Tracey very much because she stared at him a lot but he really liked Daphne and he considered Theo to be his best friend.

Harry was horrified at what he had done but couldn't bring himself to apologize. He may have hurt them, however slightly, but they had cornered him and terrified him. He would talk to them after the holidays but he didn't want to see them beforehand.

Meanwhile, Draco, Pansy, and Blaise were all in dour moods as well and Theo noticed it. He instantly assumed it had something to do with Harry's unresponsive state and decided to confront them in their compartment.

Theo excused himself and left Harry with Tracey and Daphne, heading toward the compartment which held the three he was looking for.

He opened the compartment door and shut it behind him. He took a deep breath and looked at the other three, who all looked exhausted.

Draco was devastated. Harry had hurt him intentionally and then threatened him. He understood why he did it, they had cornered him after all, but he couldn't help but feel that their efforts to help Harry were completely useless. He planned on talking to his parents about getting Harry to stay with him over the summer holidays but now, he wasn't sure their friendship would last that long.

Blaise felt guilty. He felt guilty of causing Harry to lash out, after all, he had been the one who had gotten a little too aggressive in not letting Harry pass. He felt guilty because he knew that it wouldn't be easy on Harry at all but he had pressured him into lashing out. All he wanted to do was help Harry but now he had just made it worse.

Pansy was indecisive. After Harry's display of power the previous night, something inside of her wanted him even more despite being incredibly scared. The fact that he had thrown both Blaise and Draco back, wandlessly and verbally, was a feat that could only be completed by a very powerful wizard. She could only hope that their friendship would recover soon.

"What did you do this time? He's barely spoken all day and he keeps on looking over at you guys." Theo started, jumping to the point. He came here to get answers and he was going to get them.

When the group refused to respond, anger started to well up inside of Theo. The voice only fueled his anger as it spoke about how weak Harry was and how Theo should stop being friends with him. He huffed and began speaking again, "Do you care at all for your friendship with him?"

This time, Draco responded. "You don't understand! We care for him more than anyone else! We care for him more than you do!"

Draco was extremely angry at Theo and wanted him to just leave them be. Of course, they cared about Harry, that's why they had cornered him in the first place. All that had ended with for them was being thrown across a hall and meeting a three-headed dog.

"Tell me what happened." Theo steeled himself, his scrutinizing gaze passing over all of them.

Pansy sighed and sat up straight. "We meant well, I swear. We didn't mean to scare him."

This only proved to fuel Theo's anger. "What did you do!?"

Pansy slumped and refrained from speaking again while Draco huffed and looked out of the window, wanting nothing to do with this conversation. This prompted Blaise to tell the story, completely honest and unadulterated. But first, he needed to make sure Theo knew all the details.

"Do you know Harry's secret?" Blaise asked nervously, not wanting to meet Theo's intense gaze.

Theo snorted. "Which one?"

This only proved to make Draco angrier, like throwing gasoline on the fire of his anger, but he didn't say anything. He wanted nothing more than to run up and apologize to Harry at that exact moment. He wanted Harry to abandon Theo and tell Draco that he didn't care for him and that all he would ever need was Draco. Draco wanted Harry to lean on him, _not_ Theo.

"What he's learning at his lessons with McGonagall," Blaise stated, eyeing Theo skeptically.

Theo swallowed and nodded. Harry had told him pretty much everything that had happened since he arrived at Hogwarts and it sparked a jealously in Theo's heart. It made Theo, with his lack of attention span and shyness, jealous of Harry's power and uncanny ability to learn anything.

"Wandless magic, right?" Theo asked, knowing that Blaise wouldn't trust him with just the nod of his head.

Blaise nodded and continued, "We were heading to astronomy and planned to stage sort of an intervention. We wanted to try to get him to talk about his relatives. When we were heading to astronomy and one of the staircases changed, we took our chance and cornered him. He started asking him about his relatives and he started talking about how we didn't know anything and stuff. Draco put his hand on Harry's shoulder, Harry flinched, and he asked why he flinched. He said it's because he was in an unfamiliar place and we were cornering him."

Blaise couldn't stand to make eye contact with anyone as he took an odd interest in his shoes. He took a deep breath before continuing, "We realized he was right and took a step back. He used wandless magic to throw Draco and me back, before telling us to leave him alone and running off."

Theo groaned and ran his hands through his hair. "How could you guys corner him like that?"

Blaise opened his mouth to respond but Pansy muttered, "We meant well," before Blaise could say anything.

"That's awful. I thought you guys were alright but that's... awful. No wonder he lashed out like that," Theo spoke quietly, horrified at what they had done.

Suddenly, Draco stood up, towering over Theo and yelled, "Shut up! We feel awful about it already and you don't need to rub it in! I'm apologizing right now."

Draco stormed out, feeling his anger dissipate as he looked from compartment to compartment, wondering which one he could possibly be in.

"Here, let me help you," Theo said, appearing at Draco's side.

Draco jumped at the sudden voice but sneered, "And why would you do that?"

Theo said and looked off aimlessly, trying to ignore the voice which was telling him to kill Draco for hurting Harry and then to kill Harry for being so weak. "Because I care for Harry and I can tell he misses you guys. The compartment is right over here. Do you want to apologize to him with Tracey and Daphne with him or do you want to go back to yours so you can all apologize?"

Draco thought it through, realizing how rash he was acting. "I guess we should all apologize."

"I'll get him to join you in the compartment and I'll sit in because I don't want anyone making things worse, ok?" Theo asked in his most calming voice.

Draco nodded and let out a deep breath, turning on his heel and walking back to the compartment. He sat back down in the compartment and ran his fingers through his hair.

"He's bringing Harry here so we can apologize," Draco stated.

The others sat in silence until the compartment door slid open.

All three of them looked up to see Harry standing in the doorway. They were shocked at how he looked. His cheeks were sunken in and he looked thoroughly sick as if he hadn't eaten for days. He had dark bags underneath his eyes, signaling how little sleep he got if any. His eyes were what bothered them the most though, they looked haunted as if he had seen something traumatizing.

He entered the compartment and sat down, sitting stiffly as if ready for an attack at any time. Theo slid in and sat next to him, silently praying that all would end well.

"I'm really sorry," Harry started in a small voice. "I really didn't mean to hurt you guys and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness but I swear I'll never do it again."

Draco spoke first, "Harry, it's fine. We all feel awful about what happened and we're sorry too. Can we please just have this all go back to normal?"

Harry let out a deep breath and nodded. "Thank you guys so much, I thought it'd never end."

Moments later, Harry found himself in a crushing hug underneath Blaise, Pansy, and Draco.

Harry had never had a greater sense of happiness as he laughed underneath the pile of friends. Once they got off of him, he grinned at all of them and thanked Theo.

His feelings disappeared rather suddenly as everyone felt the train come to a stop.

He sucked a breath in and his eyes went wide as his heart began to pound faster and faster, dreading what was to come. He swallowed down his fear and thought, _I've been dealing with this for 11 years, what're another two weeks going to do to me?_

Harry dreaded this ever since the moment the unexpected invitation had arrived but now, it felt much worse than he could have ever imagined. He grabbed his trunk and walked out with the rest of his friends.

As they were getting off the train, Draco turned to Harry and said, "Come with me, I want you to meet my parents before anything." Blaise and Pansy said that they would introduce him to their parents too.

He followed Draco off the train towards a pair of pale people with long blonde hair. Draco almost immediately ran up to them and hugged them both excitedly. The woman kissed him on the forehead and fussed over him, making sure he was fine while the man merely hugged him back and asked how he was.

"Mum, Father, this is my friend, Harry Potter," Draco said, seeming slightly nervous as he introduced his friend to his parents.

Harry smiled slightly as he shook Lucius Malfoy's hand but was taken by complete surprise when Narcissa engulfed him in a huge hug. "Oh, we've heard so much about you from Draco! It's so nice to finally meet you!"

Once Harry was released from Narcissa's hug, they spoke for a few minutes before Harry was introduced to Amaris Zabini. Harry was convinced that he had never seen someone more beautiful. She had long curly black hair, chocolate-colored skin, and beautiful hazel eyes.

She smiled brilliantly at him before saying, "It's very nice to meet you, Harry. I've heard quite a bit about you from Blaise. If you ever need anything, you only need to ask."

Harry was flattered by her concern and wondered internally about what Blaise had told her about him, but brushed off the thought.

Next, he was introduced to Pansy's parents. Her father was a tall man, standing more than a foot taller than Harry. He had brown hair and green eyes while her mother, who was fairly tall as well, had long black hair and dark brown eyes. Pansy looked almost identical to her mother and shared almost no features with her father.

Both of them were very chatty people, seemingly very kind and they seemed very interested in getting to know more about him. They kept on asking Harry questions and after a minute, Harry decided that he needed to move on as Pansy's parents were scaring him a little bit with all of their questions.

The next person put a bit of a dampener on Harry's mood. Theo's mother was standing alone, hugging Theo as if he was all that she had. Harry knew that Theo's father was abusive, though he wasn't sure as to what scale. He had a better idea now that he was looking at her.

She was very small and very frail, probably where Theo got his lanky figure from. She had brown hair and blue eyes, with hollow cheeks and tired eyes. Harry walked up to her and introduced himself kindly, feeling immense sympathy for the woman who was clearly being mistreated but was kind despite it all.

He finished introducing himself to her and getting to know her a little bit and found himself looking around for his Uncle.

He found him almost immediately, noticing the hungry gaze that was being directed towards him. Harry shuddered when their eyes met and his uncle waved for him to come.

Harry quickly said goodbye, Draco enveloping him in a tight hug and whispering, "If you need anything, write me."

He walked over to the looming figure that was his uncle and got in the car. Little did he know that these would be two of the worst weeks that he had ever experienced...

Thanks so much for reading, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts on the chapter! The next chapter will cover the holidays and boy... they won't be great.

I'll be updating on Sunday or sooner. Thanks for reading!


	8. 7 - Christmas

**TRIGGER WARNING: SEVERE ABUSE AND GRAPHIC RAPE**

The car ride to the Dursleys was tense, to say the least. Harry was terrified and felt that even moving the slightest bit would set off his uncle. They sat in silence the whole way there and Harry wanted nothing more than to jump out of the car and go crawling back to Hogwarts.

 _You deserve it_ , his thoughts rang out. _You deserve it, you deserve it, YOU DESERVE IT._

Harry shuddered under the weight of his thoughts and the impending doom of the punishment he was sure to get once he arrived at the house.

"Boy," His uncle's deep voice ran out through the car.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked, shakily but politely.

"You will only address me as Sir from now on," Vernon Dursley growled out.

His months without his method of relieving stress had been surprisingly hard on him. In his free time, he had thought about hitting the boy and it helped with his anger. But imagining it had nothing on the real thing.

He had big plans for the holidays and nobody would stop him.

"Ok, Sir," Harry said timidly, not sure whether or not his uncle would want him to respond.

They arrived at the house with a swerve and Harry let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding as he got out of the car.

"Go to your cupboard until I get you," Vernon commanded harshly to the small boy. With poorly hidden lust he couldn't help but notice that the boy had gained some muscle at his school. _Maybe he had played sports_ , he thought giddily. _I'll make sure he continues_.

Harry did as he was told and returned to his cupboard. It smelled better than it had the last time he left it, maybe his aunt had cleaned it. He highly doubted that, but it no longer had that awful smell of urine and blood as well as blood covering the floors. The sheets on the small cot also seemed to be clean too and Harry couldn't help but think that he could have it a lot worse.

He flopped onto the cot and tried to think positive thoughts but thoughts about what his uncle was going to do to him couldn't help but slip through. _Maybe he'll whip me, or cut me, or just plain beat me_.

His thoughts continued to change between positive, thinking about his recent reconciliation with his friends, and negative, what kind of torture he would experience next with his Uncle.

Suddenly, his cupboard door swung open and a large silhouette appeared in front of the light. "Come with me, boy."

Harry reluctantly got up and followed his Uncle upstairs, wondering what was going to happen to him next. When he reached the top, his Uncle was unlocking a padlock on Dudley's second bedroom, where all of his broken toys and devices went.

When he opened it he gasped in shock. Before it had been a dingy room with cracked light blue walls and a light brown wood floor. Now it had black walls and a dark red floor along with black curtains covering the windows, providing almost no light.

Vernon pulled Harry into the room, throwing him onto the bed. He growled out, "Take off your clothes."

Harry was confused and shook his head. "What? No..."

He snarled at the boy and glared angrily. "Take off your clothes or I'll take them off myself."

The small boy scrambled backward as his uncle walked towards him slowly, grinning sadistically. He was taking pleasure in seeing his nephew so scared.

Vernon grabbed the boy's leg and pulled him closer, feeling his pants get tighter and tighter as the boy yelped in pain. He pulled the boys pants off, taking notice of how small and fragile the legs were, stroking them as he moved his way up.

Harry was absolutely terrified as his Uncle took off his shirt, he felt as if he couldn't move. He heard the animalistic noise in the back of his uncle's throat and let out a sob of terror. If what he had felt the previous day was bad, this was completely and unequivocally awful.

Vernon loved seeing him like this, so vulnerable, so _sexy_. He took off his own pants quickly and removed his underwear. His already hard penis was getting excited from the view, just like Vernon's mind.

He quickly took off the boy's own underwear and his own. The boy was completely frozen in terror, only giving a slight whimper every few seconds.

Harry suddenly got his wits back and threw himself backward, toppling off the bed while his Uncle was preparing for his next move.

Vernon moved around the bed, knowing the boy had no way out and that Vernon could keep him immobile quite easily. He looked down at the quivering boy in front of him and said, "Whenever we're in here, you call me Master."

He leaned over and grabbed Harry around the waist and threw him onto the bed, his legs swung over the edge and his bum facing Vernon. His face was buried in the blanket and Harry wished for nothing more than for everything to stop as he felt his Uncle's hand stroking his back.

His meaty hands felt the small shoulder blades as they moved down, finally reaching the boy's ass. He used his fingers to trail his way to his asshole, sliding his fingers in slowly. He took extreme pleasure in the way the boy gasped in surprise.

He slid his member in, moaning as he felt how tight he was. He slid in until his hilt, before pulling out and repeating. This time, he hit the spot.

Harry hated the feeling that ran through his body as his uncle entered him, it made him feel disgusting and violated. He would rather die than be where he was right now. He couldn't help but let out a little moan as Vernon's penis ran over his prostate.

His uncle progressively got more and more violent, until he let out one final moan and pulled out, leaving Harry's asshole leaking white stuff.

Harry wanted to collapse into a heap and sob until he couldn't cry anymore but he wasn't given the opportunity.

His Uncle grinned and stretched, saying, "Damn, that was good. Now, get dressed and go to your cupboard, take a shower before dinner but only come out to take a shower and get right back in there. Do you understand me?"

Harry gave up, deciding he would have to be as submissive as possible if he wanted to survive the Christmas holidays. "Yes, Master."

Draco sat at the table, enjoying a great meal that was shared amongst the Malfoys, the Parkinsons, and the Zabinis. It was a great group of people and was only missing one person that Draco cared for.

He looked down at his plate, a meal of lamb and fregola when a sudden thought struck him. _I wonder if Harry is hungry right now._

Pansy, who was sitting to Draco's right, noticed his anguish and said, "I'm sure he's fine Draco. Don't worry about it, there's nothing we can do anyway."

Draco sighed and picked at his food, nodding in acceptance. His mother turned to him and asked, "Is there something bothering you, Dragon?"

He flushed a little at the use of his mother's pet name and explained, "I'm just worried about Harry, is all."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"We-we think his relatives are abusing him," Draco whispered under his breath, so only his mother, Blaise, and Pansy could hear him.

"What makes you think that?"

"He's really jumpy, he flinches a lot and you can tell he gets scared whenever anyone raises their voice," Blaise jumped in, not wanting to miss out on Narcissa's next words and wanting to make sure she got the full picture.

Narcissa looked down at the table before speaking, "I'm sure he's just anxious. After all, Dumbledore would never place the Boy-Who-Lived in a place where he would be harmed."

Anger rose up in Draco but when he opened his mouth to argue, he realized it was futile. The matriarch of the Malfoy family narrowed her eyes and demanded, "Leave it be Draco."

Draco had never seen his mother so angry before so he left the topic rest, wishing he could be with Harry, helping him through whatever he was going through.

This wish was soon forgotten as the meal continued as Draco laughed and talked among the three families about their first year at Hogwarts so far.

Numb.

That was the only thing that Harry felt. He was completely and utterly _numb_.

He had been sitting in his cupboard for three hours, coming in right after taking a scalding hot shower, his only attempt to get rid of the taint that he felt. It didn't work.

When he arrived back in his cupboard, he sat with his head in his hands, silently sobbing for about an hour. When he found that he couldn't cry anymore, he just stared straight ahead.

He watched the light coming out of the bottom of the door, holding his breath in fear every time footsteps passed by his door. His heart pounded against his chest whenever he thought about the fact that he was going to be stuck here for the next two weeks.

When the door finally opened, Harry jumped and let out a strangled sob. His Aunt Petunia was standing in the doorway.

When Petunia Dursley saw her nephew, her sister's son, sitting on the floor of a cupboard and looking up at her with Lily's beautiful green eyes, something in her heart twinged.

Petunia had wanted nothing more than to cause the freak pain from the moment she laid her eyes on him but now she wanted to help, even if barely.

Vernon was pretty much uncontrollable these days with his fits of anger and while he had never laid a hand on Petunia or Dudley, it was still terrifying knowing that one day he might just snap. The only reason he was invited to return was that Petunia knew that Vernon needed something to relieve his stress and he thought the idea was great.

 _Better off him than Dudley or I_ , Petunia reminded herself as she barked out, "Start making dinner, freak. It's fish and chips night."

Harry stood slowly, ignoring the pain that went through his backside as he limped towards the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out the ingredients necessary before turning on the oven.

It had become routine for Harry to make meals for the Dursleys. Before he had left for Hogwarts, he had a schedule on what to make for every day that was imprinted into his mind. After all, if he didn't get it right then he would face a punishment.

While Harry began to cut the potatoes, he began to think about Draco and his friends. _I wonder what they're doing right now,_ he thought. _Are Pansy, Blaise, and Draco enjoying dinner together? Is Daphne playing with Astoria? Has Theo's father hurt him yet?_

As Harry began to lose himself in his thoughts, the knife slipped out of his control and cut into his left palm, opening a large gash right down the center of his palm.

"Bloody hell," Harry whisper-yelled, not wanting alert anyone of what was happening. He pulled his hand away from the potatoes, not wanting to get blood on it and grabbed a disposable rag, wrapping it around his hand.

Harry pulled the first-aid kit off from above the fridge as silently as possible. He pulled out the first-aid instruction manual and followed the instructions on what to do.

After washing his hands, he held the already bloody rag against his hand and waited for the bleeding to slow down. While he waited, he looked around to see what kind of mess he had made. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be but he had dripped blood on the floor and it appeared to have stained its way onto a mat in front of the sink.

When he went to clean the blood from the floor with his right hand, he froze when he heard a feminine shriek ring throughout the house.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU BLOODY FREAK!" Petunia screeched, watching as her nephew stared at her with wide, fearful eyes. He was nursing a bloody rag on his left hand and it was clear to her that he was attempting to clean up the bloody floor with a piece of paper towel. She also noticed the first aid kit that was placed haphazardly on the counter behind him.

"I-I'm sorry, Aunt Petunia. I didn't mean to, but I-"

Before Petunia could cut off the boy herself, Vernon stormed through the kitchen door, exclaiming, "What's the freak done now?"

"He-he cut his hand while making dinner, got blood all over the floor and used our first aid kit! The freak thinks he has the right to use our things," Petunia snarled out, looking at the boy with complete and utter hatred in her eyes.

Vernon's anger flared up as he glared at the small boy in front of him. "Pet, order some food and throw out any of the food he's touched with his filthy hands. I'll handle his punishment."

A minute later, Harry found himself in the Dursley's basement, a cold cellar with an uneven cement floor. Harry had only ever been in the basement during beatings and usually never left conscious.

He scrambled into the corner, quickly wrapping and tying the bloody rag around his hand, as he watched his uncle walk down the basement stairs slowly.

Vernon mumbled under his breath, "Bloody, no-good freak, thinks he can just do that. I promised he'd lose his freakishness and I wasn't bloody lying!"

Harry's eyes widened as he listened to the mumbling, remembering the promise that had been made to him last summer as he watched his uncle approach.

"You know, I was hoping we would be back upstairs tonight, I would've made it especially fun. Earlier was so good and I was hoping for a repeat," Vernon said, surprisingly casual considering what he feared he was about to do. "But I guess it can wait until tomorrow."

Vernon walked over to Harry and bent over the boy, wrapping his meaty hands around his neck and lifting him in the air.

Harry gasped for air as he scratched at his uncle's hands. Vernon quickly let go, keeping Harry standing by pinning one of his shoulders against the wall.

A grin lit up across Vernon's face as he looked at the young boy in front of him, completely his, and began throwing punches.

Harry's heart hammered against his ribcage as his Uncle threw punch after punch. He wanted nothing more than to be back at Hogwarts, among his friends, as he crumpled to the ground, barely conscious.

He let out a whimpered cry as his uncle kicked him in the ribs before proceeding to repeat the same thing over and over until Harry was barely conscious.

The last thing Harry saw was Vernon walking back up the stairs, looking happier than he had ever seen him.

"Draco,' Narcissa called out, waiting for her son to turn to her before continuing. "Would you and your friends mind like to go and see the new loft we've added to the library?"

Lucius raised his eyebrow, questioning his wife silently as his son left the room with Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson, rushing off in the direction of the library.

Narcissa turned to the rest of the adults, who were all looking at her curiously and said, "I was just wondering about your impressions of the young Mr. Harry Potter from today."

They all jumped to give their answer, clearly, they had thoughts on the subject. Amaris Zabini, however, got her words out first.

"He seems like a sweet young boy, but he's so small. Maybe its just him but I've heard from many people that both of his parents were quite tall. He was very polite though, not perfect pureblood manners but better than what it could be considering he was raised by muggles." Amaris put her thoughts out, letting the others consider.

The other parents pretty much had the same thoughts and Narcissa said, "Draco told me during dinner that he thinks Harry is being abused at home."

Amaris and Lena Parkinson both gasped at this statement while Elliot Parkinson and Lucius merely raised an eyebrow.

For the first time in this discussion, Lucius spoke up, "What led him to this conclusion?"

"He said that he's very jumpy, he gets scared when people raise their voices and he flinches quite a bit," Narcissa explained, hoping that Lucius would come to a more positive conclusion than she had.

The Malfoy Lord had a million thoughts running through his head, all along the lines of why Dumbledore would place him in an unsafe home and what this meant for the boy. He asked, "Shall I summon Severus? I believe he would have noticed if such things were true."

The other members of the group nodded, while Lucius walked over to the fireplace and called him, sticking his head into the fire and calling out Severus' name.

After a few moments, Lucius pulled his head back out of the fire and turned to the group, saying, "I'm afraid Severus has decided to travel for the holidays and will only be returning on the 3rd. His house elf informed me that he would be alerted and will come here once he returns."

They all nodded in acceptance before Lucius continued, "I must ask that all of your children return on that date to give their evidence of the matter. Is that fine with all of you?"

The group quickly came to an agreement and Narcissa left to go retrieve the children so they could return to their homes.

"I can't believe my mother would completely shut me down like that," Draco said, whining slightly as he laid back, looking through the glass ceiling above the loft in the library.

Blaise and Pansy, on the other hand, were searching through books, searching for the name, 'Nicholas Flamel."

Pansy had heard from Tracey, who had heard from Padma, who had heard from Parvati, who had heard from Seamus, who had heard from Ron Weasley, that Ron, Hermione, and Neville had come across the three-headed dog as well, except they had more information. Apparently, Hermione had been escorted to Diagon Alley by Hagrid who brought her to a vault which only had one small thing in it, which Hagrid took and said it was, 'secret Hogwarts business'. When Hermione saw the headlines of the paper saying that the vault they had emptied that day had been broken into, she presumed that it was whatever the three-headed dog was guarding. They went and talked to Hagrid, trying to get out of him what they were guarding, and he said that it was Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel's business.

Pansy had taken advantage of this information by becoming determined to discover it first, knowing that the Malfoy Manor had a much more vast amount of books that any other library than the mudblood would have. To Pansy, her thought process was, 'if she got to kiss Harry first than I'm going to solve her mystery first.'

Without looking up from ' _Notable Names of the 15th-20th century_ ', Blaise muttered, "Just shut up and help us. I'm sure your mom is doing something about it, she's not dumb enough to ignore that plea for help."

Draco scowled and picked up a book, but not before Pansy shouted, "Aha! I found it!"

Blaise and Draco ran over to her side as she read, "Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone. The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It will turn any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal."

"So that's what it underneath the trap door..." Blaise said, astonished at such an important item being held in a school.

Suddenly, without warning, Narcissa Malfoy's head popped up, surprising all of them, "Pansy, Blaise, I'm afraid its time to leave. Also, you two will be coming back after New Years to talk to Professor Snape about what Draco brought up at dinner."

The three of them were happy with the idea of Harry getting retribution and Blaise and Pansy left, thoughts of Harry and Nicholas Flamel in their minds.

The rest of the holidays went slowly for Harry, _very_ slowly.

He had realized that he was only getting the worst punishment when he actually behaved so he took the beatings as they came and misbehaved quite a bit. In his mind, anything is better than what his uncle had done to him on his first day back.

Throughout the holidays, Harry had made every single meal for the Dursleys, but only ever got the scraps of breakfast. All the weight he had gained back from Quidditch and eating full meals was gone by the time January 3rd rolled around but he still had his slight muscles from Quidditch training.

Harry's cut on his hand was healed quickly the next day by Harry pushing his magic toward his hand until it had healed. When Petunia noticed that the massive gash was gone, she informed Vernon and Harry found himself working way more chores wth way more bruises littering his body.

Christmas was spent either making meals or in his cupboard and was fairly uneventful until that night. After they had Christmas dinner, Vernon had brought Harry back into the room and raped him for the second time.

For Harry, it had been much worse than the first, if that was even possible.

He had been sitting in his cupboard, looking forward the sleeping and getting closer to the time that he would leave for Hogwarts when Vernon opened the door and before he knew it he was getting dragged upstairs.

In mere seconds, Harry had been thrown onto the bed and laid completely still while his uncle disrobed him. He just laid there as his uncle groped his penis until he had an erection and ultimately ejaculated.

Harry had never felt worse about himself in his life. His uncle had raped him but his own body responded positively. It made him absolutely sick.

For the next week, Harry was fed less and less as the end of break came closer but he wasn't brought back up to the bedroom again and he hadn't been beaten (at least he hadn't been hit across the face) since Christmas Eve.

On the 2nd, the day before Harry was supposed to leave to return to Hogwarts, he had only seen his aunt when he had been making breakfast and other than that, they had been avoiding him. Or at least it seemed that way.

Around noon, when Harry came out of his closet to make lunch, his Uncle stood in front of him. It seemed as if he forgot that Harry was there and looked surprised to see him. Vernon asked him, "What time should we leave to bring you to the train station tomorrow?"

Harry answered, "The train leaves at 11 so 10:30 should be fine."

His Uncle nodded and walked back into the lounge, surprising Harry at how normal the exchange had been. He hoped that Vernon would leave him alone for the rest of the break as he set off to make lunch.

The next day, at 10, while Harry was packing his small amount of things back into his trunk, the cupboard door opened and his uncle said, "One final time before you leave."

Harry suppressed a hopeless sob as he followed his uncle back up those stairs into the room that he hated more than anything else. His uncle shoved him into the room and shut the door behind them.

Harry watched with wide eyes as his uncle began to unzip his own pants but not giving Harry and indication to do the same. When Vernon looked up and made eye contact with him, he noticed the fear in his eyes and grinned.

"Now, boy," Vernon started with a hungry look in his eyes. "What do you call me when we're in here?"

"Master," Harry whimpered out, trying to look anywhere but at Vernon's semi-hard penis that was just a few feet in front of him.

"Get on your knees, boy," Vernon growled out, making Harry feel sick to his stomach.

"Yes, Master," Harry muttered weakly and submissively as he dropped down to his knees. Vernon took a few steps forward, bringing his now fully erect penis just inches from Harry's face.

"First of all, let's establish some rules. No biting unless you don't want to return to that school of yours," Vernon stated threateningly, waiting for Harry to respond.

Harry's eyes widened in fear as he looked up at his uncle, before giving up and saying, "Yes, Master."

"Now, open your mouth," Vernon started. Harry complied almost immediately, wishing for nothing more than to be unconscious and anywhere but where he was.

"And suck."

Harry felt his uncle's penis slide into his mouth, Harry did as he was told and sucked. He did nothing more and decided that he should just imagine he was somewhere else.

Harry continued to suck until his uncle moaned and exclaimed, "Wow, now move your tongue around too."

Harry shuddered before using his tongue and noticed that something salty was entering his mouth. His uncle continued to moan as Harry continued and his uncle gave way, and a large amount of salty liquid entered Harry's mouth.

His uncle pulled back and Harry went to spit it out but his uncle grabbed him and held his mouth shut, whispering, "Swallow it."

On January 3rd, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Severus Snape apparated to Malfoy Manor and was welcome by three first-years and Draco's parents. After exchanging a few words about how the potion master's vacation had been, they got to the serious topic.

Lucius decided to explain, thinking Severus would take him the most seriously. "Draco brought up the other day that he, Pansy, and Blaise believe that Harry Potter is being abused by his relatives."

Snape, who had taken quite a liking to Harry, showed more emotion than most had ever seen on his face when both of his eyebrows raised and he asked, "What lead them to suspect such a thing?"

Draco cut in this time, "He always flinches a lot, he's really jumpy, and he gets really scared whenever someone raises their voice. He's also _really_ small, like unhealthy small."

Snape nodded, considering his words, "I will speak to Mister Potter when he arrives back at school. Is there anything else that might help to prove this?"

"Well, whenever we ask about his relatives he gets really defensive and one time, when we all tried to talk about it to him, he ran away," Pansy added, Severus noted the look that was shared between them when she said that he ran away.

"Is there something else you would like to tell me about that event?" Snape asked, wanted to get the information that they were clearly hiding out of them.

The three seemed clearly surprised at that question, which amused Severus to no extent. They thought they were so sly but in fact, they were as blatantly obvious as it gets.

Blaise added, "Well, he lashed out at us, but we basically asked for it."

Snape considered this and nodded, "That is excusable but I would like to learn more about the situation on a later date, if possible."

"You should talk to Professor McGonagall about him," Draco added quickly.

"And why should I do that?"

"Harry trusts her more than pretty much anyone at this point, she'll be able to explain everything without Hary blowing up," Blaise added bluntly.

"Okay, well I must be getting back to school and you three should probably make your way to the station. You don't want to be late," Snape said.

The six of them shared their farewells and Snape left through the floo, while Lucius and Narcissa apparated the three children to the train station.

The three students stood on the platform, waiting for Harry to show himself as multiple students filed their way onto the train.

"Oh, he's there!" Pansy exclaimed, pointing to Harry who, as she said, was walking towards the train.

All three of them looked to see if there was any visible damage, but there wasn't. His mood, however, seemed extremely downcast and his lips were red and swollen.

Draco's heart pounded faster, now happier that he knew Harry was safe. He ran over to his friend and hugged him, exclaiming, "Harry!"

Harry flinched away instinctively and his breathing picked up, before realizing it was just Draco. He apologized quickly and boarded the train with his friends, finding a compartment for the four of them to sit in.

When they all sat down and closed the door, they looked at Harry expectantly, but he just appeared numb as he stared out the window.

Draco was extremely worried about his friend's mental state and whispered, "What happened, Harry?"

Harry looked over at Draco before his eyes darted to the ground, "Nothing, it was fine."

They all knew it clearly wasn't fine by the way Harry's voice cracked and it sounded as if he was about to cry.

"You know, Harry," Pansy started, looking hesitant as his eyes darted to hers. "It's okay to cry."

Harry took a shuddering breath before collapsing. Tears ran out of his eyes and he began sobbing as if his life depended on it.

Draco was surprised by the sudden display of emotion and scooched over to him, taking his hand and happiness shot through him as Harry hugged him more tightly than he ever had before.

Pansy and Blaise watched as the train took off from the station and Harry clutched onto Draco as if his life depended on it, sobbing incoherently. At that moment, Pansy, Blaise, and Draco promised that they would put a stop to this and help Harry in every way that they could.

Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review and I should be updating again soon!


	9. 8 - Scheming

Harry walked towards Professor Snape's office, not knowing what he was going to see without coming off as completely useless and weak. He was scared of what the man's reaction was going to be and what was going to happen next with the Dursleys.

He stood outside of his office door, taking note that the portrait of Salazar Slytherin had been moved and knocked. The door opened by itself and he heard Professor Snape's deep voice saying, "Come in."

Harry took a deep breath and walked in, sitting in a chair in front of the Professor, trying not to meet the scrutinizing yet sympathetic look the potions master was giving him.

"I have been informed by a number of your classmates that you are being abused in your home. Is this true?" Snape asked nonchalantly, noticing the bags under his eyes and the red and swollen lips.

Harry took a deep breath. He should've guessed that they would tell him, it made sense. I mean, they were abusing him, right? He'd had all these ideas put in his mind that it was his fault but did he really deserve this? He hadn't done all that much wrong as far as he was aware.

"Yes," He murmured quietly, earning a small nod from Severus.

Snape had suspected as much. He hadn't given it any thought before it was brought up to him. After all, what if the boy was just small and anxious? But now, the evidence was irrefutable. "Can you tell me about it?"

Harry's eyes darted from place to place around the room, not wanting to say anything more but decided he had to. He was deathly afraid of the Dursleys finding out he had told someone and then being sent back there but he had no choice unless he really wanted to just be sent back and have a repeat of the holidays.

"What kind of stuff do you want to know?" Harry asked timidly, slowly regaining his confidence.

"Well," Severus started. "Maybe start with what kind of abuse it is. Did they ever fail to feed you for extended periods of time?"

"In the summer they would leave me in the cupboard for a couple days, sometimes a week. They would forget I was in there and I would only be let out to go to the bathroom. Over the holidays, they only fed me the leftovers from breakfast every day," Harry explained.

Snape took a deep breath, trying to rein in his temper as he heard the boy say that he slept in a cupboard so easily. "Did he ever physically abuse you?"

Harry nodded easily, hoping the Professor was going to stop there and not ask anything else.

"Did he ever... touch you?" Severus asked, hoping for the best.

Harry visibly froze and shut his eyes, nodding slightly as he heard Snape's sharp intake of breath.

"Harry, I will take this matter to the headmaster, but to gain proof I must enter your mind and go through your memories," Snape asked, "Is that ok with you?"

"Will I have to relive them?" Harry inquired, looking curiously at his teacher, wondering about the method he was going to use.

At Snape's nod, Harry took a deep breath but agreed to it, watching as Snape looked him right in the eyes and exclaimed, "Legilimens!"

 _Harry is nine years old and it is Christmas day, he sat in his cupboard, peeking through and seeing the family who was supposed to love and raise him eat Christmas dinner without him._

 _Harry is nearly eleven and just received his Hogwarts letter. He walks into the kitchen with his letter, when his uncle grabs it out of his hands and punches him in the head, rendering him unconscious immediately._

 _The day after Harry received his letter, he drops a plate and smashes it, sending his uncle into a fit of rage. He is brought down to the basement, where he uncle takes off his belt and tells Harry to take off his shirt and turn around. Harry complies and for the next half an hour, he is whipped repeatedly across the back until he passes out from the pain._

 _Harry is led up to Dudley's second bedroom, only to see that it has changed from the last time he saw it. His uncle commands him to take off his clothes but Harry refuses. His uncle threatens him, saying that if he doesn't take off his clothes then he'll do it himself. When Harry doesn't comply, his uncle follows through with his threat and takes off Harry's clothes. His uncle proceeds to corner Harry when he falls off the bed and rapes him._

 _Harry cuts his hand while making dinner. He starts using a first aid kit and desperately tries to clean up the mess he made. His aunt comes in and screams at him, catching his uncle's attention. Harry is brought into the basement where he is beaten to a pulp and soon enough, left unconscious on the ground. His magic actively worked to heal him faster than normal._

 _Harry is dragged up to Dudley's second bedroom for the second time over the break, on Christmas Eve. Harry gives up almost immediately as his uncle holds him tightly, making sure he can barely move. His uncle touches Harry's penis until he gets an erection and continues to do so until he ejaculates. His uncle laughs while Harry sobs._

 _On January 3rd, half an hour before Harry is to leave to go to King's Cross Station, Harry is brought upstairs again. His uncle commands him to do multiple things, like to call him master, to go to his knees, and not to bite. His uncle inserts his penis into his mouth and takes an immense amount of pleasure, even commanding Harry to use his tongue. Eventually, Vernon ejaculates into Harry's mouth and pulls out but he makes sure Harry swallows. Vernon leaves the room and Harry collapses into hopeless sobs as he runs into the bathroom, vomiting into the toilet._

Severus Snape jerks as he returns back into his body, utterly horrified at the things he just witnessed. He resists the urge to vomit, not wanting to frighten the damaged boy in front of him.

Harry, however, is just sitting silently, glaring at the wall with silent tears running down his face. He jerks back to reality when Severus' voice hits him, saying softly, "Are you alright, Harry? Do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

Harry shakes his head and says, "I'm fine, sir. Do you think I'll ever need to go back there?"

"No, I won't allow it. you don't ever have to worry about returning there, Harry. Do you understand?" Snape explains, hoping desperately that Harry understands the truth in his words.

Harry nods, "Thank you, sir. May I return to the common room now?"

Snape allows the boy to leave, which he does so hurriedly, clearly wanting to get out of the awkward situation. Snape sits at his desk, numb at what he just witnessed.

If Snape knew anything now, he knew that anybody who could place a child with those people and leave it to rest is not a person to be trusted. That was the moment that Snape decided that he would not support Dumbledore any longer and set off to speak with Minerva McGonagall.

Harry returned to the common room and was immediately bombarded with his friends. Draco asked excitedly, "What did he say?"

The green-eyed boy smiled for the first time in weeks and said, "He said that I'm never going back."

Professor McGonagall was sitting in her office, grading papers when Severus Snape knocked on her door urgently.

She, of course, had let him in immediately and noticed how tired he looked. She quickly asked how he was doing and he only responded by saying, "Do you have a pensieve?"

Minerva nodded and walked over to a cabinet, pulling out her pensieve and allowing Severus to pull out the memory that he wished to share and put it into it. She looked at him questionably, wanting an explanation.

"Over the holidays, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy contacted me about Draco, Pansy, and Blaise wanting to tell me something. When I arrived, they explained that they believed Harry Potter is being abused. They gave me a good reason to believe it and Draco said that he trusted nobody more than he trusted you. I had a meeting with Harry today and that is what the memory is." Snape explained, not missing Minerva's quick look of surprise when he spoke of how she was the one he trusted most.

Minerva asked, "Will you be joining me in the memory?"

Snape shook his head and gulped, "I don't believe I can watch it again. I will wait for you to return."

McGonagall nodded and leaned into it, allowing it to take her into Severus' memories.

When she returned, around ten minutes later, she was gasping for breath and had tears running down her face. She screeched, "That's horrid! How could anyone do that to another person, much less their nephew!"

Snape sighed and nodded, understanding what she was feeling as he had experienced the memories himself. He let Minerva compose herself before she spoke again, saying, "Do you still trust Dumbledore?"

"I'm not sure at this point but I don't believe I've trusted him for a while," Snape admitted, surprising the Transfiguration professor in front of him.

She looked around the room as if checking to see if someone was listening before speaking, "I went to speak to him about the first transfiguration lesson at the beginning of the year and he attempted to put me under the Imperius curse. He commanded that I tell him everything that I knew of Harry at that point and to train him to be as powerful. He wants Harry to be his little _weapon_ to be used at any time. "

Snape was surprised with the level of hatred that she spoke with and decided that she was to be trusted. He was an expert at reading people and he saw no reason to believe that she was lying to him. He was, on the other hand, surprised that Minerva had been giving Harry private lessons and asked, "What have you been teaching him?"

"Well, while he was being sorted I was the only person who could hear what was being said to him. The hat said that he should begin practicing wandless magic before it's too late and that he had the potential to surpass Dumbledore himself! So, I have been training him in wandless magic and he is extremely proficient at it. He's learning it almost as easily as he does with a wand! It's practically unheard of! I'm also training him to become an animagus and I believe he should be transforming by the end of the year." McGonagall explained, shocking Severus immensely.

"He takes after his mother, exceeding expectations wherever he goes," McGonagall muttered as an afterthought.

Snape's eyes snapped back to her after he was lost in his state of amazement. He admitted grudgingly, "Yes, he does."

McGonagall embraced the comfortable silence and began to understand the situation. "What are we to do? We can't just betray Dumbledore..."

Snape steeled himself and took a deep breath, prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the child of the one he loves. "We won't be betraying him, we'll be working in the background to ensure Harry's, and all of the student's, safety."

Minerva nodded, seeing the sense in his words. "What now then?"

"Now, we plan."

The next day, Harry was more than ready to return to classes. Now that he relatively stress-free, he decided that he was going to put his best effort forward to be the top student in their year. He was already at the top of most of his classes but it had dipped a bit during the week or so before the holidays, given that he was a bit distracted.

He decided that he would set as many goals as possible, starting with achieving the animagus transformation by spring break. McGonagall had told him that he was progressing very quickly and he should have it down by the summer but he was eager to find out what his form would be.

"Hey, Theo," Blaise started, "Who do you like?"

The three young Slytherins, Blaise, Theo, and Harry, were walking back from Herbology when this topic came up, putting Theo on the defensive immediately.

"Nobody, why are you asking?" Theo fired back, a little too quickly for Blaise and Harry's liking.

"Ooh, Theo has a crush," Harry said in a musical tune, prodding Theo in the side with Blaise following suit.

Theo blushed and put his face in his hands before taking them down and saying, "No, I don't."

"Uhuh, sure you don't," Blaise shot back, shooting him a sly wink. Blaise was extremely happy that Harry was already back to normal and wanted it to last.

"What-what makes you think that?" Theo stuttered unconvincingly, still blushing like a madman.

Harry raised an eyebrow and said bluntly, "You're blushing like an idiot and you're tripping over your words."

Theo ducked his head and proceeded to blush even more. "Ok, ok, maybe I do like someone..."

Blaise jumped and exclaimed, "Aha! I was right!"

"Shut up," Theo whisper-yelled at Blaise who looked over at a group of Ravenclaw seventh-years who were looking at them weirdly.

"So who's the lucky girl? Or is it a boy?" Hary asked and quickly fixed himself, not wanting to offend his friend if he was of a different sexual orientation.

Theo's eyes darted around as he made sure nobody was around before whispering, "Tracey."

Harry burst out laughing and Blaise was taken by surprise, he was sure he liked Daphne! Theo shot a glare at Harry for laughing at him and Harry defended, "Nothing against her, but I don't think I've seen her do anything other than stare."

"At you!" Theo exclaimed. "That's why I don't have a chance, she's basically in love with you, Harry!"

This time, Harry was taken by surprise as he shot Theo a questioning look. Blaise cut in, "He's right, Harry. She's kind of obsessed with you."

Harry raised an eyebrow and said, "I thought she gawked at everyone like that."

"Nope, just you," Blaise chuckled as Theo glared.

"If you want I can tell her I'm gay," Harry said nonchalantly, leaving Blaise and Theo totally shocked.

Theo's jaw dropped as he looked at Harry. He had never been sure of his friend's sexual orientation but if he was being honest, he didn't really mind either way. But the fact that Harry would be willing to do that for him was kind of crazy to Theo.

After a moment, Blaise asked quietly, "Are you gay?"

"I'm really not sure but I think I'm bisexual," Harry said bluntly, stunning his friends once again.

When Theo recovered, he asked, "So do you like then? Both of you?"

Instantly, Theo knew that neither of them would tell him, at least not without a little bit of persistence from his side.

Harry smiled sheepishly with an unsure look in his eyes while Blaise snorted, he thought everyone knew who he liked by now.

Theo smirked, "What was that snort about?"

"Take one guess at who I like, it's pretty obvious and it's not as if Draco didn't announce it to the whole common room at Halloween," Blaise said, obviously still slightly irked about how that situation went.

"Pansy?" Harry asked quietly, looking up meekly at Blaise and hoping he wouldn't explode at him.

Blaise huffed and nodded, "But of course, she likes you, just like every other girl in this freaking school!"

Both Harry and Theo's eyes widened at this claim, Harry said, "What? That's not..."

"Of course it's true. Either way, anyone who you like would be lucky to have you. Who is it then?" Blaise asked, deciding his anger was totally unnecessary and nothing was Harry's fault.

"Well, I think I might-"

Harry was cut off by Draco, who ran into the room, panting for breath as if he had just run a marathon. "Guys," He panted out in between breaths. "You need to see this."

Blaise immediately asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, no, the Weasley twins just bewitched a snowball to follow Quirrell around and keep on hitting him. It's hilarious!"

The three boys followed their blonde friend out onto the courtyard and the topic of who they like was never brought up again.

The next months passed by without much activity. Everything was back to normal with Harry and his friends and exams were approaching quickly.

Theodore Nott had been accepted into their group and nobody seemed to mind except for Blaise. Blaise had always thought that there was something weird about him and he just couldn't shake the feeling.

For Theo, the voice had been getting worse the more time he spent with Harry. It kept telling Theo to hurt him as much as he could but Theo just kept shoving it down, trying his best to ignore it quickly.

Harry was excelling in all his areas of magic and McGonagall was amazed at how he had progressed. He had nearly achieved his animagus form and his wandless magic was extremely proficient. In all of his classes (save History of Magic), he paid rapt attention and was easily the top student of his year.

McGonagall and Snape had come up with a plan against Dumbledore and were both very confident that it would work. They planned to use his scheme for the Philosopher's Stone against him by confronting the board of governors at the end of the year. They also planned to use Minerva's memories of Albus attempting to put her under the Imperius.

Speaking of the Philosopher's Stone, Pansy, Blaise, Draco, and Harry had all guessed that someone was trying to steal the stone, but they had no idea who it could be. At first, Harry and Draco suspected Professor Quirrell while the others suspected Professor Snape. Draco had been mildly offended when his friends said they suspected his godfather and shut their arguments down, simply reminding them how Professor Snape was helping Harry with the Dursleys. Their opinions changed rather quickly once that argument was made.

Little did they know that soon enough, they would be heading to the third-floor corridor when the teacher's refused to offer their own help, and it would lead to the death of one of their own.

"We need to go, now," Pansy said urgently to Harry and Blaise. They had put all the pieces together concerning Quirrell and had their mind set on protecting the stone as soon as possible.

Harry glanced around at all of his friends before turning to Pansy and saying, "Tonight. We'll do it tonight."

I'm so sorry to everyone reading. I'm losing motivation to write this and this and the next chapter (the final chapter) will be choppy and not very well put together. There will be a lot of loose ends but I'm going on vacation in a few days and I know that I won't be able to finish it afterward. I've decided against making a sequel and it will not be nearly as long as I wanted it to be (as seen by the massive time change in this chapter).

I'm sorry that this is going so severely downhill, but I promise I'll do my best to get an ending out as soon as possible, but it almost definitely will be unfulfilling and pretty bad.

On the other side, this just hit 1 k and that's totally amazing (on Wattpad and ). I never end up finishing stories and it makes me happy to see so many people supporting it.

Thanks so much for reading and please leave a comment/review if you would be interested in adopting this for a sequel or just leave your opinion on the story. Thanks!


	10. 9 - Obscurial

Harry walked out of his astronomy exam feeling confident with Theo at his side. Draco, Pansy, Blaise were still taking the test and Harry planned on waiting for them before heading for the third floor.

Theo had been informed about the Philosopher's Stone but he didn't know about their plan to get the stone that night. He had noticed that they had been holding back information but didn't comment, he was just happy that they were telling him something. The voice, on the other hand, had been screaming that they were dirty liars and how they should have told the whole story.

Harry and Theo were mindlessly chatting about how they thought they did on the exam when three Gryffindor's, more specifically, Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, ran past them, muttering about something. The only thing that Harry could pick up was, 'Fluffy' and 'Snape'.

Theo watched as Harry's widened and he let out a gasp, his eyes following the three lions down the hallway before he looked to Theo and exclaimed, "We need to follow them, now. I can't explain other than the fact that Quirrell is going to steal the Philosopher's Stone and they are going after it. I don't want them to get hurt."

Harry spoke quickly and Theo took his words seriously, following Harry as he ran down the hallway after them. Once they caught up, they opted to try and look more casual until they got to the area where the hallways crossed into the dungeons. After that, they proceeded to hide behind corners and wait until the trio passed into the next hallway.

Once they reached the third corridor and they were hiding near a corner, Theo accidentally hit a suit of armour, gaining Hermione's attention. She immediately whispered, "Did you hear that?"

Harry slapped his hand over his mouth silently as they heard Ron and Neville tell Hermione she was ridiculous as she slowly walked towards their location.

Before they knew it, their silence was futile and Hermione saw them. "Harry? What are you doing here? Why are you following us?"

"We know about the Philosopher's Stone too," Harry quickly compensated. "We just wanted to help you guys and make sure you didn't get hurt."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. After her behaviour earlier in the year towards him, she was surprised he was acting this way but hesitantly agreed to him coming along, much to Ron's chagrin.

"Why are you letting this slimy bastard come with us, 'Mione?" Ron snarled, trying to look as menacing as he could. To Harry, he barely scratched the surface of being as intimidating as a cute kitten.

Theo smirked, "You should be grateful that we're here to save your sorry arse. At least now you might not be a complete embarrassment to your house with us here."

Ron spluttered for words and didn't respond, choosing the just turn on his heel childishly and walk away. Neville, on the other hand, looking completely confounded and needed a quick jab about how clueless he was to keep on moving.

They reached the door and Harry stepped forward and stated, "First, let's set some ground rules."

The other four nodded, some more hesitantly than others, and he continued, "First off, Ron and Neville are going to do whatever Theo, Hermione or I say."

"What? You're joking, right? Us, taking orders from a couple Slytherins?" Ron laughed, as if it had been a joke. He was soon shut up with an angry look from the Slytherins and a warning look from Hermione and Neville.

"It's the only way you're going to get out of this alive," Theo said seriously. Hermione continued for him, "They're right. The teachers probably set up all the traps in here so they're going to be nearly impossible for us to do."

Ron gulped and the two of them nodded. Harry quickly said, "Secondly, if someone tells you to run, run. This is a life or death situation and me and Theo do not want your blood on our hands. Third, if someone dies, Neville or Ron, basically whoever is left standing, needs to run and get the closest teacher. Deal?"

The rest of them nodded and they entered the room, greeted with the familiar face of Fluffy the three-headed dog. Harry immediately took notice of the harp playing itself and took advantage of the opportunity.

"Quirrell's already been through here, come on," Harry said, brushing off the surprise at his announcement of who was really guilty in the situation.

Hermione exclaimed quietly, "What do you mean, Quirrell? He can barely even cast a spell without stuttering, how do you expect him to do something like this?"

As Harry and Theo moved the paw out of the way and lifted up the trap door, Harry quickly answered, "Never underestimate the enemy," before jumping in himself.

Neville squeaked in shock before looking up and noticing that the three-headed dog was waking up. The rest of them quickly jumped in as well, the trap door shutting behind Theo, who was the last to enter.

The five of them landed in thick vines that slowly began to wrap around them. Ron began to cry out for help and the rest began squirming as it took a tight hold on them.

"It's Devil's Snare! Dammit- I can't remember how to get rid of it!" Harry exclaimed through the darkness, slowly beginning the panic before asking, "Does anyone remember it from Herbology?"

"It's- Oh Merlin- It's deadly fun... I- I can't," Hermione started, trying repeatedly to remember before being cut off by Neville.

"It's deadly fun but will sulk in the sun!" Neville shouted, happy to finally not be completely useless.

Harry yelled, " _Lumos Solem_!" He was forced to use wandless magic because the plant was wrapping around him, rendering his arms immobile ad he was unable to grab his wand. However, it was not a very difficult challenge and he completed the feat effortlessly.

The plants shrunk away from the incredible light and let the five of them fall to the ground. Theo muttered, "Good going, Harry," while the others just gave short, approving nods.

The group now found themselves walking into the next room. The ceiling's were three times as high with many columns stretching down. There were dozens of keys floating along the ceiling and a pristine looking door. There was also a broom flying in midair about five feet in front of Harry.

The three Gryffindor's began to discuss what their next move would be while Harry stormed up to the door and pointed his wand at it, shouting, " _Bombarda_!"

The rest of the group jumped as the door exploded while Harry just scowled and muttered, "This is too easy... I wonder..."

"What is it, Harry?" Theo asked, concerned.

Harry shook his head as if to get rid of his thoughts. "Nothing, just an afterthought."

The lions noticed the small exchange and Hermione could tell that the afterthought actually meant something but brushed it off and followed his lead.

The next room held a large chess set with pieces that were three times as tall as Harry himself. He thought over a number of possibilities in his head before asking, "Are any of you good at chess?"

Hermione piped up, "Ron is great at it, nobody has beaten him so far this year and he plays just about every day."

Ron's face turned red as he looked down at his shoes. Harry raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is that true?"

The youngest male Weasley suddenly felt very bashful under Harry's scrutinising gaze. He mumbled, "I mean, I guess."

"Is that a yes or a no? Our lives are on the line here and if you're too shy to speak up than I can't know if we can trust you." Harry barked out, reminding everyone there of a very strict teacher and they suddenly felt as if they were the ones being scolded.

"Yes, it's a yes." Ron said, much more confident than before. He didn't want Harry Potter to show him up much less go around saying he scolded him like he was a child.

Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair before saying, "Okay, for this room, you command us."

Ron's eyes widened but he got over his shock when Harry barked at him to get moving. His mind began racing but he quickly commanded everyone to go to a place on the board. Since there were only three spots that needed to be filled, Harry and Theo were told to move to the side because they were the least expendable of the group.

Harry was stunned as he watched the logical side of Ron's brain at work. He commanded Hermione and Neville as if he had been an army general and he spoke with the confidence of one too. He was extremely impressed by the redhead's strategies and took mental notes on his observations.

As the game was nearing an end, Ron came to a realisation that he would have to be sacrificed to ensure victory. He turned to Harry and said, "I'm going to need to get taken out but don't worry about it. Once I'm down, Neville can take down their king."

Harry nodded, impressed by the maturity he was showing as he watched the sword of the queen threw Ron to the side like a rag doll. He gasped as he noticed that Ron had a rather large gash on his head and was bleeding profusely.

Hermione shouted his name and prepared to step off her square to check on him when Harry demanded, "Hermione, stop. Once the game is finished you can check on him."

She nodded, stunned at her own illogical decision as she watched Neville finish the game. The moment he said, "Checkmate," the game was over and they had won. The sword fell from the King piece's grasp and rattled as it collapsed to the ground. All the pieces returned to their original positions and the door behind the board opened.

Harry let out a breath and ran towards Ron, where Neville was already shaking him and shouting, "Ron! Get up!"

"Are you daft?" Theo asked Neville genuinely, only to receive an offended look from the chubby Gryffindor. Theo snorted in response.

"Move away, don't touch him," Harry commanded, waiting for them to obey. After a moment, he cast a healing spell on the cut on his head, which closed it after a few seconds before putting his hand on his arm and pushing a fraction of his magic into him. This performed a quick assessment before Harry summarised, "He's fine, just unconscious."

Theo was stunned to see Harry perform healing magic so easily but brushed it off as one of the many things Harry could do that no other his age could do. The voice in his head, however, was getting louder by the minute and was extremely jealous. It was louder than it ever was before and Theo was terrified that something was going to happen. It had never been that bad before.

The four of them now moved onto the next room and the moment they stepped in, a long line of purple flame shot up behind them and black flames shot up in front of them, just past the only object in the room, a table. On the table were 7 potions lined up horizontally.

Harry walked up to the table and noticed a piece of paper, which Hermione picked up. She read through it and said, "It's a riddle."

When Theo gestured for her to read it, she did:

 _"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,_  
 _Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,  
One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
Another will transport the drinker back instead,_  
 _Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line._  
 _Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,  
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:_  
 _First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;_  
 _Second, different are those who stand at either end,_  
 _But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;_  
 _Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;  
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."_

Harry and Hermione's minds spurred into action while the other Gryffindor just looked on in confusion. Theo, on the other hand, watched in interest as Hermione and Harry discussed the riddle as if they had been doing it for years.

Suddenly, Hermione pointed at the third bottle and said, "So this one must be the one to move ahead."

Harry nodded, agreeing with her and said, "Yeah, that's right. The one on the far right must send you back then." He looked around at the group and said, "Neville, I'm going to send you back to get help. Take this, drink it, and go back."

Neville nodded quickly, although he didn't want to leave the heroics to two Slytherins and a know-it-all Gryffindor, and drank the potion before turning around and running through the flames back to the chess room.

Hermione watched as Neville disappeared into the flames and sighed before looking at Harry for the next instruction. Harry moved the potion to go ahead closer towards him and cast the doubling charm on the potion twice, so there were three potions for them to drink from. He handed one to each of them.

"Before we do anything, are you both sure you want to continue on? I have no idea whats on the other side but this is your only chance to stop," Harry offered. He mostly did this to reassure himself that they weren't being dragged into it if they got hurt in the next room.

When the other two reaffirmed that they wanted to continue, Harry muttered, "Bottoms up," and they drank the surprisingly tasteless potions.

The three of them walked together towards the flame in unison, none of them hesitating as they walked through the flames easily.

On the other side, only Hermione was surprised to see Professor Quirrell muttering to himself in front of a mirror. His head snapped around and faced them and he smirked when he realized it was just three little first-years who had come to defeat him.

"It was Quirrell..." Hermione whispered under her breath, having never even thought of it until Harry and Theo had claimed it was him.

Harry scoffed and said, "We've known for months now."

"What are three little first-years doing here on a night like this? You must be suicidal to have thought you could take on me," Quirrell said confidently, without a care in the world.

Harry pulled out his wand and started the battle by yelling, " _Stupefy_!"

While Harry's audacity took Quirrell by surprise, he easily recovered and cast a spell back. All of Harry's practice with running away from Dudley had given him good instincts and he jumped away before throwing a hex his way.

After a few seconds, Theo and Hermione joined in the battle but were quickly incapacitated when they were tied to a wall with a quick, ' _Incarcerous_ ' from Quirrell.

The battle between Harry and Quirrell continued for a few minutes, both landing multiple blows on each other when finally, experience bested power and Harry was hit with a full body bind curse.

Harry's legs snapped together and his arms flew to his sides as he collapsed to the ground. The only thing he could move was his eyes, which looked up to see a sneering Quirrel standing over him.

"How," Quirrell started, "Disappointing. I expected more from the boy who defeated the most powerful wizard of all time." He waved his wand lazily and the spell on Harry was released but less than a second later he was thrown against the wall on the opposite side of the room, across from Hermione and Theo.

He fell to the ground, choking for air after having the wind knocked out of him. Before he knew it, Quirrell yelled, " _Crucio_!"

Theo and Hermione watched on as Harry convulsed on the ground, screaming in pain for what felt like ages. Theo felt totally helpless as the voice in his head rejoiced in Harry's pain but he felt nothing but guilt for not being able to help more. Hermione, on the other hand, stayed silent. While she felt totally awful for not being able to do anything, she was happy it was happening to him and not her.

Harry felt like it had been years that he was under the curse, the pain was so overwhelming that he could feel himself nearing unconsciousness. Despite the need to just fall asleep, he felt like he couldn't. His friends were in need.

When Quirrell got bored with torturing Harry, he let him out of the curse but quickly cast an Incarcerous on his too, leaving him tied against the wall. Quirrell walked over to the other side of the room, eyeing Theo with interest.

"You're Tiberius' kid, right?" Quirrell asked, looking Theo straight in the eye with a hard look.

Theo gulped but nodded. His father wasn't the easiest topic for him to talk about but he wasn't going to test his luck here in withholding information.

' _Let me see him_ ,' a voice rasped out from an unknown location. Theo looked around desperately but couldn't see anything except for Quirrell but it sounded like it was coming from right behind him.

A scared look passed over Quirrell's face as he stammered, "But, my lord, you are too weak right now! You're in so state to-"

' _Do as I say, Quirinus_.' The voice commanded harshly, leaving Quirrell no opportunity to resist as he nodded quickly and began unwrapping his turban.

Harry, who had recovered and was watching the scene, looked on in horror as Quirrell slowly unwrapped his turban, revealing a repulsive face on the back of his head. Harry gasped in pain as he made eye contact with the being and a sharp ache suddenly went through his mind. The face grinned when it saw he was in pain.

Quirrell turned around, allowing Theo to see the face on the back of his head while Harry just saw Quirrell's face, smirking. The voice said, ' _Ah, you look so much like your father. Tell me, is he still loyal to the cause?_ "

Theodore gasped in shock at the face and whimpered, 'You- You're Voldemort?"

The voice chuckled, enjoying seeing one of his future follower's shock. ' _Yes, though it is Lord Voldemort to you. Now answer my question_.'

"Yes, my father is still loyal to the cause," Theo said quietly, trying his best to ignore Hermione's gasp of shock from next to him.

'Good, good," The voice rasped, apparently it didn't notice Hermione's gasp. 'Though I was quite angry with him when he married your blood-traitor mother. However, he made up for it with his undying loyalty to me. He was willing to kill her for me but I told him he needed to produce an heir first and here you are."

Theo felt anger well up in him toward his father and the thing in front of him. He was about to yell but Voldemort beat him to it as he said, 'Quirinus, turn around. I wish to see the Potter scum."

Quirrell did as asked and walked toward Harry before turning around, allowing his master a view of the first-year. He sneered at Harry in his weakened state and laughed out, _'Look at him now. Complete weak and worthless, I'd like to see you stand up to me now._ '

Harry glared defiantly, "You'll never win."

Quirrell turned around quickly and exclaimed, "How dare you talk to him like that! _Diffindo_!"

The cutting curse that was sent towards the not-so-defenceless Harry was quickly blocked in an exceptional use of wandless magic and he quickly followed it up with a quick blast of pure magic, sending him back to roughly the middle of the room. Harry destroyed the ropes around him with a quick wandless and nonverbal, ' _Finite Incantatem._ "

Harry went to attack immediately after but was cut off with a quick, 'Crucio' which Harry was unable to dodge as he collapsed to the ground, screaming for the second time that day. It was even worse this time and Harry felt, not for the first time in his life as if he wanted to die.

The pain flared through every nerve in his body and he felt as if every bone in his body was going to give out.

Hermione watched in horror as the situation deteriorated around her. Harry was under the Cruciatus curse and she knew that if you were under it for a certain amount of time it could leave permanent damage and Theo was just revealed to be the son of a loyal Death Eater.

When Harry was let out of the curse, his hands continued to jerk consistently as he turned onto his stomach and emptied its contents onto the floor. A few seconds later, Quirrell commanded, "Get in front of this mirror and tell me what you see."

Harry somehow still had the audacity to resist and snarled out, "I'll never do what you tell me."

Voldemort laughed, making Hermione and Theo cringe at the sound that vaguely reminded them of fingernails on a chalkboard. "You just wait, Harry Potter. The day will come where you are merely a slave in my dungeons and you will comply with my every command."

Harry looked horrified at Voldemort's words but his horror was changed into utter bliss as Quirrell pointed his wand at him and muttered, " _Imperio_."

All of Harry's pain completely disappeared and he found himself feeling like he was floating. Suddenly, Quirrell's words broke through his trance; "Walk up to the mirror and tell me what you see."

Harry suddenly felt like something was wrong. He felt like he couldn't resist the command but a sudden determination filled him and he snapped out of his reverie, grunting as he stumbled a bit. All the pain came back from before and he found his arms twitching harshly. When he regained his balance, he glared at Quirrell who countered by throwing a cutting curse at him.

As he was having difficulty remaining standing, he decided to dodge the curse by falling to his knees. Quirrell laughed at this display of weakness but was completely shocked when Harry began throwing a barrage of spells in his direction.

During this small battle, Harry quickly found himself being defeated again. He couldn't hold his own against an uninjured opponent who had decades of experience on him. When the first curse hit him, he was done.

'Was that wandless magic?' Voldemort asked, sounding surprised. Quirrell nodded in affirmation and prepared himself for his next command when he heard his master scowling.

'Torture him. Maybe if he knows what will happen if he remains light he'll want to join the winning side. With a little bit of training, he could change the fate of the war. Make sure there will be no permanent damage other than scars,' Voldemort said, thinking out loud.

Quirrell nodded and began throwing cutting curse after cutting curse. Before long Harry had cuts everywhere on his body and Quirrell began casting, 'Crucio' again. By this point, Harry's voice had gone hoarse from screaming so he was writhing on the ground as if he was having a seizure.

"Stop!" Theo exclaimed from the wall, standing motionlessly. The voice in his head was howling at this point and was begging Theo to let him out. It was saying that it could help Harry if he let him out.

Voldemort, on the back of Quirrell's head, was facing Theo and snarled, "Just like your blood traitor mother aren't you? Wanting to betray us?"

The voice began screaming and Theo couldn't get past the thrum in his head. He couldn't get past the pounding as he watched one of his best friends being tortured and him not being able to do anything about it.

 _LET ME OUT_ , the voice screeched, making Theo want to crawl into a ball from the pain it caused to his head. He whimpered, "Please, just stop. I'll do anything."

Voldemort sneered at his pitiful begs and ridiculed him further; "You'll never live up to your father's image and you'll always be like your poor, weak, worthless mother. When I get my body back, people like you will be my first targets."

Theo gave out from the pressure and let the voice take over.

Hermione watched in shock as Theo's eyes turned white and he began to convulse madly. After a few seconds, she became unable to discern whether or not it was even still Theo next to her.

A black cloud of smoke began to appear around him before taking the form a dark mass with two glowing eyes. Theo disappeared in a matter of seconds and the mass attacked. Everything that followed could be described as nothing less than pure destruction.

When Minerva McGonagall found Neville Longbottom outside of her quarters, panting as if he had just ran a marathon, she thought it was just a cruel joke. That is, however, until she heard the words Harry Potter, Theo Nott, and Philosopher's Stone.

She immediately commanded Neville to lead the way before sending a Patronus to Madam Pomfrey and Severus while walking. Silently, she prayed that her training was enough for Harry to hold off whoever was down there.

The feeling of shock did not fade as she passed through each obstacle that five first-years managed to pass with a small amount of difficulty. The moment she saw Ron Weasley unconscious on the floor, she gasped and ran up to him, checking his heart rate to see if he was alright. She would never forgive herself in a student managed to get killed doing something that she had created.

She sighed in relief as his heart was still beating and he was in stable condition. She noticed that a cut on his head had been healed and turned to Neville, asking, "Who healed him?"

"It was Harry, Professor. " Neville said honestly, slightly embarrassed that he was being upstaged by a Slytherin but appreciated the fact that his best friend was alright. While Neville was not the brightest, he knew when he should tell the truth.

McGonagall sighed in relief and thought, _thank Merlin that boy learns quickly_. Otherwise, Ron Weasley might have died that night.

She continued on and noticed that instead of flames sprouting up behind them and ahead of them as it did when enchanted, nothing happened. Neville seemed to have noticed this as well.

McGonagall continued to walk past the table and was horrified at the image in front of her. The floor and walls were completely torn apart and three people were strewn around on the floor, one in the corner, still conscious.

Hermione Granger was in the corner with her head in her hands, completely horrified at what she had just seen. Theodore had just become that- that _thing_ and destroyed everything. It completely ripped apart Quirrell and the only thing she could hear was the repeating thud of his head hitting the ground.

McGonagall held a hand out, gesturing for Neville to stay where he is and stay quiet as she approached the terrified eleven-year-old in the corner. Hermione was shaking like a leaf as she whimpered quietly.

"Hermione?" McGonagall asked softly. "Are you alright?"

Hermione snapped out of her trancelike state and looked her professor straight in the eye before breaking into tears and completely collapsing. "It was awful," She choked out in between sobs, leaning into the woman who was at her side. The professor merely rubbed her back reassuringly and muttered words of encouragement into her ears.

When it became clear to Minerva that Hermione was not going to calm down any time soon, she stunned the first-year wandlessly and nonverbally and levitated her body into the next room, where the ground was definitely stable.

She walked over to Theodore and turned him over, gasping as she saw his appearance. His eyes were open and completely clouded over and blue veins were prominent all across his face. She put her finger to his neck and confirmed her fears.

"Minerva! What happened here?" Poppy's high-pitched voice echoes throughout the room, heels clicking as she walked in.

McGonagall straightened herself out before standing up and turning to the matron, "I'm not quite sure myself, a tragedy..." She faded off, looking down at the eleven-year-old boy by her feet.

Minerva moved onto Harry as Poppy ran over to Theo, trying her best to ignore the stifled sob that Poppy gave off as she examined the boy. Poppy muttered, "Oh, Minerva... He's dead."

McGonagall nodded but didn't respond. All she felt was numb. How could she have let this happen on her watch?

A silent vow was made that day by Minerva McGonagall to protect her students no matter the cost. She had let Albus endanger their students for too long and she was done with standing by and letting it happen.

The moment Harry returned to consciousness, his arms began twitching uncontrollably and everything that had happened came back to him. The first thought that ran through his mind was, what happened to Theo?

He sat up quickly, before collapsing back onto the bed, feeling incredible pain course throughout his body. He groaned in pain and a quick, "Oh!" was heard before the clicking of high heels.

Moments later, Harry felt liquid going down and his first instinct was to force it away before he heard a familiar voice say, "Oh, don't worry. It'll get rid of the twitching. An after-effect of the Cruciatus curse."

Once he realized it was just the nurse, he willingly drank the potions, ignoring the awful taste and repulsive thickness of the liquid.

"What happened?" He asked hoarsely as he opened his eyes, taking a few seconds to adjust to the light before looking at the nurse straight on.

She clucked at him and said, "I think it's you who should be telling us that, Mr. Potter. What is the world possessed you to go there by yourself? And dragging along four other students, no less!"

Harry sighed distractedly and looked away before explaining the story, from being informed about the Philosopher's Stone by his friends to being tortured by Quirrell. After telling his story, he asked, "Where is Theo? Is he ok? And Hermione too?"

"Hermione is fine, just in a state of shock at the moment," She started, looking anywhere but at Harr. "But, I'm afraid Theodore didn't make it."

For Harry, the world lost all colour as the truth of that statement hit him. He whispered, "What happened? How did he die?"

"When we found him, he was in a very strange state. It appeared as if he had been dead for days and we looked through multiple old cases for any sign of what it could be and came to the conclusion that he was an obscurial." Poppy explained patiently, observing Harry's reaction to her words.

He looked up, confused, and asked, "What is that?"

"An obscurial is a wizard who has had their magic suppressed and that creates a dark force of magic called an obscurus. Obscurials are usually made as a result of being abused. Theodore's case is extremely rare, however, as he did seem to have access to his magic despite being an obscurial. I'm not sure if you knew this, but Theodore had a minor case of schizophrenia and we believe that he may have suppressed his symptoms, choosing to ignore them. As it got worse, it probably got harder for him to hide it and as he experienced intense emotions during your fight with Quirrell, it was released. As a result, his obscurus was released, killing Theo and Quirrell and injuring you even more severely than you already had been," Poppy explained quietly, watching Harry absorb the information.

After a few minutes of silence, Poppy spoke up, saying, "I'll leave you to your thoughts, please let me know if you need anything. "

Harry nodded in thanks as he laid back down, though he didn't fall asleep. He stared ahead as guilt began to haunt him and he asked himself what he could have done to save his friend's life.

Two months later, Harry was staying in the Zabini household in Italy with Blaise and Draco. The end of the year had passed quite quickly but not without a fair share of drama.

After the news was broken to the school at the end-of-year feast that both Theodore Nott and Quirrell had died, everyone was sent into a frenzy. This announcement was immediately followed up with Dumbledore awarding 50 points each to Hermione, Neville, Ron, and Theo and 100 points to Harry. This was quite an obvious way of letting the school know what had gone down.

Harry had been warned by Dumbledore not to tell anyone about what had happened so he listened and refrained from telling anyone, despite being asked by everyone. He felt incredibly guilty, especially because his friends had trusted him with their secret about the Philosopher's Stone and he couldn't tell them what had happened with it, but that all changed in the middle of the summer.

Spending the summer in Italy was not on Harry's list of things to do but he had no issue with it, especially when he knew the alternative. The biggest shock, however, came when Blaise handed him the Daily Prophet one day and it read:

 _ **DUMBLEDORE IN AZKABAN**_

 _On this day of August 20th, 1992, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was arrested in his home by the auror division and was tried for use of the unforgivable curses, more specifically the Imperius Curse, and allowing the death of a first-year student, Theodore Nott, to occur._

 _He was accused of these things by two teachers at Hogwarts itself, Professor Minerva McGonagall and Potions Master Severus Snape. Supposedly, Dumbledore had attempted to place the Imperius Curse on both Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall herself! This was proven in a trial where McGonagall provided a memory and Pomfrey was investigated by mind-healers for evidence of the Imperius. Both of these proved true and he was sentenced to Azkaban for life as per the law that was made in 1717 that declared that any use of the three Unforgivables on another person is punishable to a life sentence in Azkaban._

 _In the case of his second accusation, not much is known surrounding the death of Theodore Nott and it has been kept private by the Wizengamot by request of Theodore's mother, Eloise Nott. What is known is that the incident occurred during the exam time at Hogwarts and four other students and a teacher (who was killed that night as well) were involved._

Harry gasped in shock and looked up at Blaise, who had one eyebrow raised and was looking at him with a questioning glance and he asked, "Can you tell us now?"

Harry nodded and told the story to his friends, not holding back a single detail as he told the tale of the Philosopher's Stone and the Obscurial.

And that's a wrap! Thanks so much for reading and I would appreciate it very much if you could leave a comment/review! I've loved writing this story and it's been an amazing experience (probably the first book I've ever finished writing lol)!

Don't forget to leave a review! Thanks for reading!


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